Bangla (film)

Bangla is a 2019 Italian film directed by Phaim Bhuyian.^[3] The film premiered at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam.^[4]

Bangla
Film poster
Directed by	Phaim Bhuyian
Written by	Phaim Bhuiyan Vanessa Picciarelli
Produced by	Domenico Procacci Annamaria Morelli
Starring	Phaim Bhuyian Carlotta Antonelli Simone Liberati Pietro Sermonti Shaila Mohiuddi Nasima Akhter Rishad Noorani
Cinematography	Simone D'Onofrio
Edited by	Roberto Di Tanna
Music by	Dario Lanzellotti
Production companies	Fandango TimVision Production
Distributed by	Fandango
Release date	26 January 2019 (2019-01-26) (IFFR)[1]
Running time	87 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian
Box office	$291 thousand (worldwide)[2]

This movie gets the director, Phaim Bhuyian David di Donatello Award for Best New Director in 2020.^[5] In 13 April 2022, Bangla - La serie was released on RaiPlay, produced by Fandango and Rai Fiction. A series sequel of the film having the same director, cast and characters.^[6]

Plot

The film features the struggles of a 22-year-old man in Rome. Phaim, played by the Director, to balance his Bengali background, the religious restrictions of Islam and Ramadan, with meeting a progressive young Italian girl, 'Asia' with whom he falls in love.

Phaim was born in Rome and in the film he and his friends speak Italian, but his parents are traditional and he does not reveal his relationship to them. He works in a museum, and in his free time, performs with his band at small events.

He meets Asia at his band's first proper gig. Their relationship blossoms and he meets her eccentric family and her friends. But he insults her after getting drunk for the first time. He then discovers his sister and his bandmate are both reluctantly engaged in arranged marriages, and he accepts an arranged date with a Bengali girl, Mala. They joke about their other partners, and nothing else happens between them. His parents decide to move to London, but his ex-bandmate, who has already moved there, says life is not great, and he moves back to Rome. This improves the band markedly, and they play a gig at a Bengali wedding, where Phaim fantasizes about Asia while on stage. The next day, at the mosque, the young Imam who had counselled Phaim to leave the sin of a relationship with Asia confesses he was himself in a relationship with an Italian girl who he loves, but is suffering regret for breaking it off. This precipitates Phaim to run to Asia's apartment where they passionately make out.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2019	Hamburg International Film Festival	Best Production	Nominated	[7]
	Italian Film Festival	Audience Award	Won	[8]
	International Film Festival Rotterdam	Big Screen Award	Nominated	[9]
	Nastro d'argento	Best Comedy	Won	[10]
	Globo d'oro	Best First Feature	Won	[11][12]
2020	Festival del Cinema Europeo	Mario Verdone Award	Won	[13]
	David di Donatello	Best Debut Director	Won	[14]
		Best Original Screenplay	Nominated	[15]