The film portrays how human trafficking has affected Bangladeshi expatriate workers, how the abuse of women and girls of the society took place in this cycle and how these hard workers receive disrespect everywhere. Tauqir shared his experience with the Dhaka Tribune in an exclusive interview.
What inspired you to make Oggatonama – The Unnamed?
Tauqir: It was sometime before 2000, I was travelling to Bangladesh from a European or a North American country. After reaching Dubai, my transit point for the journey, some colourfully dressed people boarded the plane and became incredibly noisy inside. The air hostesses seemed angry and started misbehaving with them. I figured that these were the labourers who worked in the Middle East and actively provided for our country.
The behaviour that was shown by the hostesses hurt me. Every person should be respected as a human being no matter what. The impoliteness that the workers were showing was not their fault. The authorities had failed to properly teach them and they are constantly subjected to humiliation everywhere.
Some years later, I heard from one of my friends that a few Bangladeshis had died in an accident in Sharjah and the ID on one of their bodies was changed and the matter only came to light when the body reached the wrong destination.
The two incidents haunted me for so long I started studying the matter. I was shocked to learn from official data that more than 14,000 Bangladeshis had died abroad in the last six years. I created the film to give people a reason to think about these problems and if this could, in any way, help to create respect for these hard-working people.
Yes, that's the theme of my film – every person has the right to be respected.
Tell us about the character of Beauty.
Tauqir: I want to make films that tell the stories of ordinary people. Here, I am presenting a portion of the society and what is happening there. In order to portray the wrongful destination of the body of a deceased, I included a female character about who portrays all those women who are constantly being subjected to oppression in the society.
You used a lot of symbolic imagery in the film, what is their purpose?
Tauqir: Even though the film is realistic, I started with a symbolic scene that describes the theme – every human being has the right to be respected. You can see several symbolic scenes in the film that express various aspects of our lives.
You started as an actor and started directing films later on. What do you enjoy more? What is your ideology for making films?
Tauqir: As I mentioned earlier, I make films to tell the story of ordinary, everyday people. Their breath, their struggles, their hopes and lives. Despite being invited to make several commercial films, I did not make any. I did not even start making advertisements although it could have yielded a huge income for me.
How would you explain the entrance of Tollywood films in Bangladesh?
Tauqir: I believe that simple is beautiful and beautiful is the truth. And this is portrayed in alternative films largely nowadays.
If these Tollywood movies are quality movies, they are more than welcome. But the commercial movies now being shown at the cinemas should not be imported and shown. A particular section of the society is watching these movies, not all.
Who is the audience for our quality movies? The middle class people mostly. But we have lost our middle class movie lovers and the remaining audience is from a particular section who love to watch trashy commercial movies. Film-makers are struggling to make alternative movies and these films have a very small audience.
Besides, the number of cinemas in our country is dropping day by day. It is better not to import such films as they would also occupy the handful of places existing at present.
Who is to blame for the absence of quality movies in Bangladesh? What is the way out of that?
Tauqir: There is no alternative to government initiative in order to enliven the cultural arena, especially the film industry.
The government will have to spend more money to help make more quality movies and have to be selective while selecting the films.
Apart from that, the cinemas should be clean and enjoyable. Piracy must also be stopped.
Most importantly, we have to bring our audience back to the cinemas. For this, the government could, maybe, fix a cinema – perhaps the at hall at Shilpakala Academy – where only alternative films will be shown. They could range from Bangladeshi movies to European movies. The audience, especially the youth would be enriched watching these films.
At the end of the day, we have to remember that history only remembers how civilised a nation was by the measure of its culture.
In Dhaka, is being shown at Shyamoli, Balaka, Jamuna Blockbuster and Ananda. Outside the capital, the movie can be seen in Purobi in Mymensingh, Monihar in Jessore and Madhobi in Tangail's Madhupur.