The Clay Bird
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Tareque Masud
Nuril Islam Islam
Russell Farazi
Jayanto Chattopadhyay
Rokeya Prachy
Moushumi Bhowmik
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
A young boy is torn between his Koranic school and his strict orthodox Muslim father.
Director
Tareque Masud
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
The Clay Bird
Many critics compared The Clay Bird to the work of Indian director Satyajit Ray. In this intimate and nuanced portrait, Tareque Masud shows the diversity and complexity of Bangladesh life before the revolution including its rich folk and religious musical traditions.
The conflict between Anu's orthodox father and increasingly independent mother is complicated by Kazi's younger brother Milon (Soaeb Islam) who becomes deeply involved in the fight for Bangladesh independence. Additional stress is caused by a devastating battle between Anu's parents over the treatment of his young sister Asma (Lameesa Reemjheem) who has become gravely ill but whose father denies her access to antibiotics out of religious belief.
That family split is echoed in a similar division between moderate and extremist forces at the madrasa and the country's greater conflict between Bangladesh's struggle to be a democratic, secular society and the desire of an Islamic military junta to establish religious control over the populace.
"The problem begins when we try to claim that any belief system is the only solution to every issue and aspect of life. In all religions, there is a danger of extremism, and Islam is no exception," notes Tareque Masud, of his measured view of Islam in the film.
The Clay Bird was the opening film in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and won the International Critics' Prize in that section for "its authentic, moving and delicate portrayal of a country struggling for its democratic rights." The film was also the first ever Bangladesh entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards. Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times called the film, "easily one of the finest pictures of this year or any other. Masud's expansive fluidity is rapturous, inspired equally by the floating equanimity of Satyajit Ray and the work of the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami."
The Guardian's critic Peter Bradshaw in his review responded to the unusual tolerance and openness of the film's message in a time when views of Islam have become extremely narrow.
"The film offers a valuable and independent engagement with Muslim history, quite different from the ugly fight-to-the-finish promoted elsewhere in the media, and constitutes a nuanced riposte both to the dogmatic verities of religion and also to a species of Islamophobia that assumes the Muslim world to be crudely monolithic."
Tareque told the French newspaper Le Monde of the film's portrait of his native Bangladesh, "This reality has nothing to do with its image abroad, of a poor country of famine, flood and fundamentalism. I wanted to convey my own image of my country, that of a moderate Muslim Bangladesh, and to bring out its social, cultural and political diversity."
The story for The Clay Bird came out of Masud's own experiences as a child at a madrasa during the late Sixties during the turbulent Bangladesh struggle for independence. By 1971 after a violent civil war between a poorly armed population and US-backed Pakistani military forces, the country broke away from the Great Islamic State of Pakistan. An estimated three million Bengalis were killed in that conflict.
After the war, Tareque left the madrasa and began his studies at Dhaka University where he studied history and became involved in the film society movement. He worked for a time in New York with his American wife Catherine on the documentary Song of Freedom (Muktir Gaan, 1995) before returning to Dhaka to continue his film career and to run the film production firm Audiovision with his wife. The Clay Bird was their first feature film.
The Masuds received the support of the French government and the involvement of Paris production and distribution firm MK2 to undertake their one and a half year long filmmaking project. They invested their life's savings in the film. Using actual local students, teachers, street children and villagers and real locations, the Masuds aspired to create an authentic portrait of the culture. The only professional actors in the film were Jayanto Chattopadhyay and Rokeya Prachy.
That realism may have been too much for the Bangladesh government though. Despite international outcry and support of the film, the Bangladesh Censor Board banned The Clay Bird for being too religiously sensitive. After much campaigning, that ban was lifted, albeit not before cuts were made to the film.
Director: Tareque Masud
Producer: Catherine Masud
Screenplay: Catherine Masud and Tareque Masud Cinematography: Sudheer Palsane
Production Design: Kazi Rakib, Sylvain Nahmias
Music: Moushumi Bhowmik
Cast: Nurul Islam Bablu (Anu), Russell Farazi (Rokon), Jayanto Chattopadhyay (Kazi), Rokeya Prachy (Ayesha), Soaeb Islam (Milon), Lameesa R. Reemjheem (Asma), Moin Ahmed (Ibrahim).
C-94m. Letterboxed.
by Felicia Feaster
The Clay Bird
Clay Bird, The - THE CLAY BIRD - A 2002 Co-Production Between France and Bangladesh on DVD
The story focuses on the young son sent away to religious school. The main thematic conflict pits the limitations of small-village tradition against a more complex and contradictory reality. We are soon quite concerned for Masud's unsentimental characters.
Synopsis: Young Anu (Nurul Islam Bablu) is sent to a religious boarding school because his orthodox Muslim father Kazi (Jayanto Chattopadhyay) wants to remove him from local Hindu influences. The shy Anu's only friend at school is an orphan outcast named Rokon (Russell Farazi). Back in the village, Anu's mother Ayesha (Rokeya Prachy) is distressed when her daughter Asma (Lameesa R. Reemjheem) falls ill. Kazi dispenses homeopathic remedies and refuses to let Asma be taken to a doctor. Kazi is already angry with his politically active younger brother Milon (Soaeb Islam), and breaks with Milon entirely when he becomes involved in the Bangladesh Independence movement.
Ethnographic films seem to improve considerably when the filmmakers are from the cultures being portrayed. Tareque Masud was himself sent to a Madrasah (an orthodox boarding school for boys) and remembers the shock of learning that it did not represent the real world. The complex portrait of Bangladesh offered in The Clay Bird is due to the filmmakers' experience across political and religious lines: One actor is a Hindu playing a Muslim and another a Muslim playing a Hindu. Several languages are spoken in the film, and even the schoolboys are expected to learn Farsi and Arabic in addition to their local Bengali language.
Young Anu's experience is similar to that of any child being raised in orthodox surroundings. The humorless Kazi forbids his children to enjoy the local Hindu music and games. Anu is sent off to school to remove him from the 'corrupting' influence of his own uncle, the progressive Milon. Younger sister Asma is forbidden to play outside. When Milon gives her a little clay bird, the only brightly colored thing she owns, she must hide it.
The film wins us over to its point of view on the orthodox life not by preaching but by showing Anu's family coping with the contradictions in their lifestyle. Kazi and his orthodox friends comfort each other with the certainty that their beliefs are just, even as they reject all things of the outside world including modern medicine. Ayesha feels betrayed by her husband's devotion to Allah and its rules that prevent her from taking proper care of her sick daughter. Ayesha is not even granted a full personal identity. Kazi addresses her not by her own name, but as the "mother of Anu." Kazi's paternal wisdom is assumed to prevail in all things. When Asma falls sick, Milon sneaks some medicine to help the child deal with a fever. Kazi rejects it, saying that it will interfere with his homeopathic cures.
At school Anu is given a Muslim name and witnesses cruelties to his best friend Rokon. Driven half-mad by buzzing in his ears, Rokon is sent into the cold river to dunk himself 101 times, a ritual meant to exorcise the demon in his mind. And this is 1970, not the middle ages.
Minon's awareness of political events and his Western mode of dress make him an outsider in a community where sanctioned musicians sing songs about ignoring outside influences and placing all faith in Allah. News reaches the village that the Pakistani Army is burning villages and shooting people at random, but Kazi refuses to give the warnings credence.
The Clay Bird has no scenes of violence and observes the terror of a civil war through the eyes of innocent citizens. It shows the villagers as intelligent people and not ignorant peasants, but clearly indicates that tradition and religious inflexibility make them easy victims of outside forces and their own illusions. It has no villains. Kazi is a thoughtful and caring man.
Milestone and New Yorker's The Clay Bird is a strikingly beautiful enhanced transfer of this carefully filmed show. Bangladesh is presented as a lived-in and livable place. The period reconstruction is a clear labor of love. The production went to great lengths to find vehicles and boats from 1970. The movie makes intelligent use of indigenous music, much of which is offered by folk singers and balladeers. All the songs seem to have a moral or religious purpose.
The disc has several welcome extras. A 30-minute docu watches Tareque and Catherine Masud going through production videotape to explain the difficulties of filming in a place with such unpredictable weather. We share their finding of the perfect locations and their efforts to cover up modern architecture and remove things like satellite dishes from their locations.
A lengthy set of interviews brings us in closer contact with the cast members, a fascinating and diverse group of actors. Four year later, the boys that play Anu and Rokon already look like adults. The Masuds are also interviewed and are quick to praise the local cooperation given them during filming. A still section, two trailers and an audio presentation of three uncut songs from the soundtrack are also included.
For more information about The Clay Bird, visit Milestone Films. To order The Clay Bird, go to TCM Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
Clay Bird, The - THE CLAY BIRD - A 2002 Co-Production Between France and Bangladesh on DVD
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Winner of Best Film in Critics Week/Directors Fort Night at Cannes Film Festival 2002.
Released in United States 2003
Released in United States January 2003
Released in United States May 2002
Released in United States on Video September 26, 2006
Released in United States Spring April 30, 2004
Shown at Cannes Film Festival (Directors Fortnight) May 15-26, 2002.
Shown at Palm Springs International Film Festival January 9-20, 2003.
Shown at the New Directors/New Films series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, March 26 - April 6, 2003.
Released in United States 2003 (Shown at the New Directors/New Films series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, March 26 - April 6, 2003.)
Released in United States January 2003 (Shown at Palm Springs International Film Festival January 9-20, 2003.)
Released in United States Spring April 30, 2004
Released in United States May 2002 (Shown at Cannes Film Festival (Directors Fortnight) May 15-26, 2002.)
Released in United States on Video September 26, 2006