Directed by
Tareque Masud.
The Clay Bird takes place in the late '60s, in East Pakistan, on the eve of a violent revolution that created the independent state of Bangladesh. Anu (Nurul Islam Bablu) lives with his fundamentalist Muslim father, Kazi (Jayanto Chattopadhyay), who practices homeopathic medicine. Anu's mother, Ayesha (Rokeya Prachy) was once a spirited girl, but she's become sullen in subservience to her increasingly taciturn husband. Anu also has a sweet but sickly little sister, Asma. Milon, Kazi's younger brother, is involved in local politics, protesting against Pakistan's military rule. He also takes Anu to the lively local Hindu festivals. Finally, worried for his son's spirituality, Kazi sends Anu away to a madrasah, a strict Muslim boarding school. There, the sweetly inquisitive boy is an outcast, so he befriends another outcast, Rokon (Russell Farazi), who invites him to play catch with an imaginary ball. (In the strict teachings of the madrasah, the boys are not allowed to employ objects or boundaries in their play.) As Anu adjusts to life away from home, Asma grows gravely ill, and Ayesha is frustrated by Kazi's refusal to use modern medicine. The family has its own internal crisis as the political upheaval around them reaches a deadly level. Director Tareque Masud, who wrote the script with his wife, Catherine Masud, who also edited the film, has a background in documentary filmmaking. The Clay Bird, his first narrative feature, won a FIPRESCI Award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was shown at New Directors/New Films in 2003. It was also the first film officially submitted by Bangladesh for Oscar consideration. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
liked it.
The Clay Bird is an astonishingly complex debut narrative feature from writer/director Tareque Masud. Rooted in autobiography, the film impresses with a combination of raw dramatic impact and moral complexity. Set in the chaotic and dangerous East Pakistan, soon to become Bangladesh through a bloody revolution against Pakistani military rule, the film is first and foremost a human story about people caught up in forces beyond their control. From the taciturn orthodoxy of Kazi (Jayanto Chattopadhyay) to the open-minded political activism of his brother, Milon, Masud and co-screenwriter Catherine Masud (his wife) take pains to show the humanity that informs the characters' religious viewpoints. The story is told predominantly from the viewpoint of Anu (Nurul Islam Bablu), a sweet-natured boy who gets sent off to a harsh religious school, but Masud takes pains to flesh out all the supporting players, with a particularly fond view of outsiders, from Rokon (Russell Farazi), the troubled boy who befriends Anu at school, to the downtrodden ferryboat operator who has some wisdom to impart to Milon, despite his lack of formal education. The characters with the most extreme (and in the end, destructive) views in the film are not presented as villains, but as people who think they are doing what is best. This works so well in part because Masud gets such sympathetic and believable performances from his actors. The inclusive look at Islam is joyously summed up in a
bahas, a religious debate sung as a debate between a man and a woman, that occurs late in the film. In addition to being a rich, rewarding drama, The Clay Bird opens a clear-eyed portal into a region and an important time in world history that few Americans are familiar with. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide