Tanvir Mokammel

Tanvir Mokammel is a film-maker and an author of books from Bangladesh. Born in 1955, he has made five full-length feature films and twelve documentaries. His films, some of which have received national and international awards are “The River Named Modhumoti” (Nadir Nam Modhumati), a deconstruction of the Hamlet-theme on the backdrop of Bangladesh’s liberation war against Pakistan in 1971; “Quiet Flows the River Chitra” (Chitra Nadir Pare), plight of a Hindu family who after the partition of India in 1947 had refused to migrate from the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh); “A Tree Without Roots” (based on Syed Waliullah’s novel “Lalsalu” about a Mullah who had established a false shrine); “Lalon” (a bio-pic of the famous Baul song-composer of the 19th century rural Bengal Lalon Fakir) and “The Sister” (Rabeya, a filmised deconstruction of the Greek play ‘Antigone’ by Sophocles).

Tanvir Mokammel’s prominent documentaries are “The Unknown Bard” (Achin Pakhi), a bio-pic of Lalon Fakir and his Baul ideas; “Teardrops of Karnaphuli”, about the political conflict between the Chakmas and other ethnic peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts with the plainland Bengalees; “Riders to the Sunderbans” (Bonojatri), a documentary about the journey of the poor fishermen’s wives through the mangrove forest of the Sunderbans towards the sea; “A Tale of the Jamuna River”, a journey-film about the river Jamuna depicting the condition of the Jamuna river and the relationship between Jamuna river and the people living beside it; “The Garment Girls of Bangladesh” (Bostrobalikara), a documentary which follows three garment girls who came from village to work in the garment factories in metropol Dhaka and through them depict the real condition of this billion dollar export-oriented industry of Bangladesh and the wage factor of its workers; “The Promised Land” (Swapnabhumi), depicts the plight of the Urdu-speaking Muslims from Bihar, popularly kwon as the “Biharis”, who had migrated from India in 1947 to live in the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh); “Images and Impressions”, a documentary about the International People’s College (IPC) in Helsingor, Denmark, where the film-maker taught for four months; “The Japanese Wife” (Japani Bodhu), a documentary on Hariprobha Takeda, the first Bengali woman who had visited Japan a hundred years back and wrote a travelogue on Japan and “1971”, a three-and-half hours mega-documentary on the genocide, rape of women, refugee issue and political and military events during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.

Tanvir Mokammel’s important books are “A Brief History of World Cinema”, “The Art of Cinema”, “Charlie Chaplin: Conquests by the Vagabond” (a book on the life and art of Charlie Chaplin), “Syed Waliullah, Sisyphus and Quest of Tradition in Novel” (a literary criticism), translation of Maxim Gorky’s play “The Lower Depths” and “Grundtvig and Folk Educaiton”, a book on N.F.S. Grundtvig’s alternative educational ideas. A prolific writer, Tanvir Mokammel regularly writes poems and articles on different subjects.

During his youth Tanvir Mokammel worked as a journalist and spent quite a few years as a left wing activist to organize the landless peasants of rural Bangladesh. Mr. Mokammel is now the director of “Bangladesh Film Institute” (BFI) and “Bangladesh Film Centre” (BFC).