Celebrate 50 years of Bangladesh Independence

Birmingham Indian Film Festival is pleased to be partnering with Purbanat CIC, Sampad South Asian Arts and Heritage and Midlands Arts Centre to bring you the debut Birmingham Bangla Film Festival to celebrate 50 years of Bangla and British Bangledeshi identity in Birmingham. This festival is part of Purbanat's year-long celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Bangladesh Independence and funded by Birmingham City Council. Plus find out how you can see Runway, directed by Tareq Masud who won the International Critics Prize at Cannes in 2002 for his film, The Clay Bird AND see The Zoe Rahman Trio in a FREE concert at Symphony Hall!

We want everyone to feel safe and comfortable at our events so please make sure to follow the MAC Birmingham visitor guidelines and Symphony Hall audience guidance.

Recognise Bangladesh

Recognise Bangladesh
Fri 3 Dec, 8.30pm, MAC Birmingham, Cannon Hill Park

Tanvir Ahmed directs this fascinating grass roots documentary exploring the fight for Bangladesh liberation efforts from the UK, particularly from Birmingham. Academics, restaurateurs and community figures became ‘freedom fighters’ for their homeland, despite living miles away. This documentary has helped bring their stories to the forefront and Bangladesh has recognised their role and will be conferring them with ‘freedom fighter’ titles.

Please note: this film is in English and Bengali, but the parts in Bengali do not feature English subtitles.

The screening will be followed by a live Q&A with director Tanvir Ahmed and guests.

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Khacha (The Cage)

Khacha (The Cage) + virtual Q&A
Fri 10 Nov, 8.30pm, MAC Birmingham, Cannon Hill Park
Director: Akram Khan
Starring: Jaya Ahsan, Azad Abul Kalam
110 mins | 2017 | Bangladehs | Recommended Certificate: 12a
Bangla with English subtitles

As British colonial rule ends in 1947, India is divided into two states based upon religious belief - East and West Pakistan for Muslims and India for the Hindus. During this period of communal unrest, a Brahmin family from East Pakistan decides to move to India, but they face numerous obstacles as they try to leave the country. Khacha was selected as the Bangladeshi entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards and was co-written by cast member Azad Abul Kalam.

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Meghmallar

Meghmallar + Virtual Q&A
Thu 16 Dec, 7.00pm, MAC Birmingham, Cannon Hill Park
The film will be preceded by a cultural presentation from 5.30pm
Director: Zahidur Rahim Anjan
With: Shahiduzzaman Selim, Aparna Ghosh, Jayanta Chattopadhyay, Mariam Hossain Zara,
92 mins | 2014 | Bangladesh | Recommended Certificate: 12a
Bangla with English subtitles

Meghmallar is a touching story set in the monsoon of 1971 that sees an ordinary family find themselves going through a life altering experience in a span of just three days, just as the Liberation War for Bangladesh starts to gain momentum.

This 2014 Bangladeshi drama is an adaption of writer Akhtaruzzaman Elias's story Raincoat and was screened in the Discovery section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

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The Zoe Rahman Trio

Sat 18 Dec, 1pm, Symphony Hall, Jennifer Blackwell Performance Space
Sampad Arts presents a FREE Mid-day Mantra family special with live music from The Zoe Rahman Trio, poetry readings, and Bengali craft, to mark the anniversary of the Independence of Bangladesh, 50 years ago this month.

Zoe Rahman was born in Chichester, UK, to a Bengali father and English mother, and studied classical piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Later she took a music degree at Oxford University and then won a scholarship to study jazz performance at Berklee College of Music, Boston, where she studied with the inspirational pianist JoAnne Brackeen.

Zoe’s albums have won many awards and acclaim including a MOBO for best Jazz Act 2012 (a work of breathtaking musical imagination’, Metro), Mercury Award nomination in 2006, and ‘Jazz Album of the Year’ at the UK’s first Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Her fourth album, Where Rivers Meet, is a stunning collaboration with her brother Idris, exploring music from their Bengali heritage, which creates “a wholly original brand of Anglo-Asian music” (Sunday Times).

The Zoe Rahman Trio will feature Idris Rahman on Clarinet and Debipriya Sircar on Sitar. Also appearing is poet Tamanna Abdul-Karim, craft artists Dilwara Begum and Sameerah Hussein.

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Runway

Runway
Available until June 2022 at www.loveliffathome.com
Director: Tareque Masud
With: Fazlul Haque, Rabeya Akter Moni, Ali Ahsan
90 mins | 2010 | Bangladesh | Recommended Certificate: PG
Bangla with English subtitles

Winner of a Cannes prize for his triumph The Clay Bird, this is the last offering from Tareque Masud who tragically died in an accident last year. Teenage Ruhul lives with his family in a small hut next to the runway of Dhaka international airport. His family struggle to make a living while he spends his days wandering under the shadow of the planes, aimless and frustrated in his futile efforts to find work. One day at a cyber-cafe he meets computer geek Arif (Ahsan) who introduces him to a group of other young men and what seems an inspiring new religious sect, but all is not what it seems and he quickly gets pulled into a world of violent revolutionary politics.

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