Two documentary films on the anvil
It will be a different kind of celebration of the Victory Day at the Bangladesh High Commission here on December 16. This is the momentous day when the joint forces of Indian soldiers and Bangladeshi freedom fighters triumphed over the Pakistani army 39 years ago leading to the birth of a new nation.
“Stop Genocide”, the landmark documentary film by Zahir Rahman, depicting the brutality by Pakistani troops unleashed on unarmed Bengalis, will be screened at the mission's auditorium aptly named “Moitree Hall”, symbolising the friendship between India and Bangladesh.
It will be the first time that the 22-minute documentary, made by Raihan during the Liberation War, will be shown in Delhi.
The film highlights a parallel, drawn in the narration, between the genocides in Vietnam, Algeria and Bangladesh.
“Stop Genocide” was the debut documentary by Raihan who was already an established name in the feature film segment with works like “Kokhono Asheni”, “Sangam”, “Bahana” and “Jibon Thekey Neya”.
During the Liberation War, Raihan had gone to Kolkata where his “Jibon Thekey Neya”, based on the 1952 movement for Bengali language, had earned appreciation from Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Tapan Sinha.
Another documentary that will be screened at the High Commission is “War Crimes 71”, directed by Shahriar Kabir, portraying the genocide committed by Pakistani troops during the Liberation War in the name of Islam.
The Bangladeshi mission here must be lauded for the initiative taken to arrange the screening of the two films as part of its cultural diplomacy which had been dormant for a long time until it was revived earlier this year with the holding of a festival of Bangladeshi feature films here earlier this year.
“This year, we have decided to celebrate the 39th anniversary of the Victory Day of Bangladesh in a different manner. We will screen the two documentaries,” said Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Tariq A Karim.
“The atrocities inflicted on the innocent and unarmed people of Bangladesh by those who opposed the liberation of Bangladesh accounted for one of the gravest crimes against humanity of all times,” he said.
Karim said the present democratic and secular polity of Bangladesh is determined to bring to justice, maintaining international standards, the perpetrators of those heinous crimes against humanity committed during those nine painfully bloody months of the war in 1971.
“This has been long overdue and has hung heavily on the collective conscience of the people of Bangladesh for long,” he added.
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