'Stop Genocide'

Afsar Ahmed

An old lady is journeying towards an unknown destination leaving everything behind--her motherland, her home, her blood relations and her dreams. The toils and travails, the agonies depicted in her face are enough to touch anyone's heart. This scene from the documentary Stop Genocide is so moving that anyone can feel the horror of the brutality and genocide going on in the then East Pakistan. Stop Genocide was the perfect depiction of that time,' says a nostalgic MA Khayer, who was the in-charge of the Film Division of the Mujibnagar Government's Information Ministry in 1971.

'The film was completely Zahir Raihan's concept. He firmly believed that a film projecting the true picture of brutal human rights violation by the then Pakistani government could create world opinion against those acts more effectively than meetings and processions. It was during April-May 1971 when he came up with the concept of making a film on the genocide, but the Motion Picture Association of Bengal didn't take it seriously at first. Finally, however, Zahir Raihan convinced them and the rest is history.'

Directed by Zahir Raihan with the assistance of Alamgir Kabir, Stop Genocide faced a lot of obstacles especially regarding its finance, says Khayer. 'The Motion Picture Association of Bengal helped a lot for financing the film. Dr AR Mallick, the Chairman of the Liberation Council of Intelligentsia, also provided the financial help for the film,' he informs.

Abul Khayer also came forward to promote the film on behalf of the Mujibnagar Government. 'But the path wasn't that easy. The inside story was different. The then Mujibnagar Government wished to produce film on the Liberation War and its leadership rather than the genocide. The principal reason of their objection was a missing link in the film: the absence of our great leader Bangabandhu,' says Khayer. 'But, Zahir Raihan wanted to earn recognition of our war of independence. He firmly believed that the whole war was by the name of Bangabandhu and, at the same time he also believed that the whole world knew it. Even, all the slogans contained his name and the freedom fighters used to take oath by his name. Raihan felt that it wasn't necessary to highlight Bangabandhu again and again and intentionally left out his name from his film.

'But Zahir Raihan had a completely neutral angle in this regard: he was more willing to project the real picture of the genocide than the political affiliations of the war for creating more effective opinion,' says Khayer. The brutality of the genocide and the apathy and the struggle of the migrated general people were the main theme projected in this subtle documentary. The language was simple and appealing. And that's why, Stop Genocide acclaimed the emblem of the true picture of that time, as Khayer perceives.

'On its first screening at a secret place in India, the cabinet of Mujibnagar Government including Acting President Syed Nazrul Islam, Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed, AHM Kamruzzaman and the politicians present there became totally emotional. The film also helped us gain the Indian support in the Liberation War,' recalls Khayer.

'It was the middle of the war and we were in Kolkata. The cabinet of the Mujibnagar Government decided to make another film on the Liberation War by Zahir Raihan. Tajuddin Ahmed himself asked me to tell Raihan about the project. I contacted Raihan and he didn't refuse. He made four films out of the budget sanctioned for him! The films were Birth of a Nation, Children of Bangladesh, Surrender and the other one I can't recall now. The films were very well-made but we are so unfortunate that we couldn't be able to preserve these films.

The films were sent from India and Khayer is sure that the films reached the soil of Bangladesh. But he cannot tell how they have lost forever. 'We can't preserve our heritage--our past achievements, those glorious events and people behind them,' regrets MA Khayer.