United Red Army

“United Red Army”, Naeem Mohaiemen's documentary about the September 28, 1977 hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 472 will see its Dhaka premiere tomorrow (May 11) at 7pm at the ULAB auditorium in Dhanmondi.
The documentary will be screened throughout this month at different venues and times in Dhaka and Chittagong including Dhaka Art Centre (May 15 at 6pm); Lecture Theatre, Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University (May 17, 3pm); Radius Centre, Gulshan, Dhaka (May 20, 7pm); Theatre Institute, Chittagong (May 24, 7pm) and BRAC University, Mohakhali, Dhaka (May 27, 3:30pm).
The Douglas DC-8, en route from Paris to Haneda Airport in Tokyo with 156 people on board, stopped in Mumbai, India. Shortly after taking off from Mumbai, five armed Japanese Red Army members hijacked the aircraft and ordered it flown to Dhaka, Bangladesh. At Dhaka, the hijackers took the passengers and crew hostage, demanding $6 million and the release of 9 imprisoned JRA members. The 70-minute film focuses on the negotiations between Dhaka control tower and the lead hijacker. The story also goes through the interlocking histories of 1970s' Bangladesh, and post-war Japan and Germany crisis.
The film is also Mohaiemen's personal memory as a frustrated eight-year-old whose favourite TV show, “The Zoo Gang”, being superseded by a live broadcast of the hijacking-and-hostage crisis.
An unprecedented media event for the young nation of Bangladesh, whose broadcast capabilities at the time were rudimentary at best, the airplane drama dragged on for days, a seeming eternity for the little boy awaiting the return of his beloved show.
The film is part of Mohaiemen's research on Bangladeshi history.