By SAT News Desk
MELBOURNE, 13 July: Set in the backdrop of the most complex delta on earth, Hasina: A Daughter’s Tale is an ambitious attempt to analyze and document the persona of an iconic political figure, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.
Directed by Piplu Khan, Hasina: A Daughter’s Tale (Bengali with English Subtitles, 132 minutes) will be one of the highlights of the festival and will have its Australian premiere at the festival.
Piplu told Daily Star it as a docu-drama on the life of Hasina and how she lives the many roles she possesses — as a daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; a policymaker; a mother; a grandmother and the leader of her people.
According to the Centre for Research and Information (CRI), who collaborated with Apple Box Films to produce the docu-drama, “The documentary starts with off with the narration of Sheikh Rehana, the only living sibling of Sheikh Hasina who survived the 1975 mass murder of the entire family with her. The docudrama mostly shares very personal memories of the two sisters. The film progresses to show Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana’s accounts from their simple life, back in Gopalganj’s Tungipara to the difficulties they faced in Europe during the aftermath of the assassination of her father and family. This is followed by intimate detail of her return to Bangladesh in the 80s, her fight for democracy during Ershad’s presidency, her loss in the 1991 polls, constantly put under house arrest afterwards, her children sent away to boarding schools abroad for the sake of their education and security as well as the several assassination attempts on her life. The prime minister herself appears in interspersed segments, often adding to the stories.
Hasina-A Daughter’s Tale’ overall is not a story of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her political career, rather it is a documentary on Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina. It demonstrates a heartrending biopic of what the title of the film portrays, which is a fascinating account of a daughter’s perspective on how the country’s darkest hours had changed her life forever. In the documentary, a daughter recalls rare memories and insights on the relationship with her father. The film, “In her own words, presents her transformation from a woman with a carefree, simple childhood changed into a leader determined to seek justice against those who conspired to assassinate her 20 family members. The film is dedicated to Renu, the nickname of Sheikh Hasina’s mother Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, who is also an important character of the two sisters’ recollection in the film.”
