The 20th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) is being held in Dhaka from January 15 to January 23, 2022. The general theme of the festival is ‘Better Film, Better Audience and Better Society’. The festival has been organized on a regular basis by Rainbow Film Society, which has been dedicated to the promotion of a healthy cine culture in Bangladesh and in celebrating the global mainstream in film and its social relevance since 1977.
Here are our picks for the top ten films being screened at this year's DIFF :
Mayar Jonjal (Debris of Desire)
Runtime: 101mins
Director: Indranil Roy Chowdhury
Synopsis: Satya is a petty criminal in Kolkata. His lover Beuti, who is an illegal immigrant sex-worker from Bangladesh decides to open a legit bank account. Satya decides to rob her before she can shift her cash and jewellery into the bank account.
Chandrabati Kotha
Runtime: 104mins
Director: N Rashed Chowdhury
Synopsis: The young daughter of a veteran poet, Chandrabati is in love with another poet Jayananda. On the eve of their marriage, Jayananda betrays Chandrabati and marries another woman in the community. The pain-stricken Chandrabati resorts to choosing a passionate life of confining herself inside a Shiva Temple and vowing to rewrite the epic Ramayana.
Lal Moroger Jhuti
Runtime: 104mins
Director: Alam Atique
Synopsis: The story of a small town inhabited by Biharis. There are many characters-Buddho, Padmo, Shaheb Ali, Reba, Dipali, and Captain Javed Nokvi. The story also gives an important role to a red rooster- Bagha. The story is about the time in 1971 where the Pakistani army, with the help of the Biharis, captured over three thousand helpless Bangalis.
Breathless
Runtime: 90mins
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Synopsis: Michel, a petty thief, steals a car and impulsively murders a police man. Hence, he creates an escape plan to hide away in Italy so he pursues his love interest Patricia, to come along with him.
Tokyo Story
Runtime: 136mins
Director: Yasujirō Ozu
Synopsis: Elderly couple Shukishi and Tomi Hirayama live in the small coastal village of Onomichi, Japan with their youngest daughter. Their other three surviving adult children, who they have not seem in quite some time, live either in Tokyo or Osaka. As such, Shukishi and Tomi make the unilateral decision to have an extended visit in Tokyo with their children. But all of their children treat the visit more as an obligation, each trying to figure out what to do with their parents while they continue on with their own daily lives.
Barah by Barah
Runtime: 118mins
Director: Gaurav Madan
Synopsis: Sooraj, the last remaining death photographer at the burning banks of Manikarnika, is going through troubled times like old Kashi. The ancient town is being demolished to build modern beautified pathways.
Dostojee
Runtime: 111mins
Director: Prasun Chatterjee
Synopsis: The aftermath of Babri Mosque demolition and the Bombay blasts in India, 1992-'93, found its violent echoes even in a remote village of West Bengal adjacent to the India-Bangladesh border where the story begins to unfold. A story of friendship between two little boys belonging to two warring religious communities. Palash (8) is the son of a Hindu Brahmin while Safikul (8) is the son of a Muslim weaver. The innocence of Palash and Safikul receives its sustenance from nature. The greenery of the village, the river and the vast stretch of paddy fields playfully rebound the echoes of the voices and the laughter of the boys. However, relentless fate arrives quietly, when separation becomes the destiny of their friendship.
Koozhangal
Runtime: 74mins
Director: Vinothraj P S
Synopsis: A hot-tempered alcoholic father drags his reticent son to a distant village to fetch his wife whom he had chased away. But when the encounter turns ugly, the journey home through unforgiving Tamil Nadu barrens is fraught with the sweat and smudge of the deserted terrain where the land and human emotions lay brazenly palpable in the scorching heat.
Prob Lohakhor
Runtime: 85mins
Director: Shaheen Dill-Riaz
Synopsis: The annual famine in northern Bangladesh forces farmers Kholil and Gadu along with several of their relatives to leave their homeland. They are going to work as seasonal labourers in the shipbreaking yards in the south. In the yards that line the beaches of Chittagong, they will dismantle the garbage of the Western World: oil tankers and vast container ships. Director Shaheen Dill-Riaz is witness to a system of exploitation that very few workers can escape from: the seasonal workers from the north don't only do the most dangerous work in the yards, they are also forced into debt and trapped in the south.
Tell Me Who I Am
Runtime: 89mins
Director: Sergio Basso
Synopsis: In 1990, one-sixth of the population of Bhutan was exiled because they demanded greater democratic rights from the ruler. The film follows the story of Sarita, a 13-year-old girl born in Khudunabari, a refugee camp in Nepal where over 100,000 Bhutanese exiles live. Now they will be "relocated": thousands of families will be forced to emigrate and their Lotshampa identity will disappear forever. Sarita and her friends will not tell us their odyssey: they will dance and sing it.