A romantic comedy with a huge heart and charm to match, promising director Phaim Bhuiyan’s debut is a fresh and spirited portrait of the complications of young love caught between very different beliefs.
Phaim (played by the director himself) is a twenty-two-year-old Muslim boy born in Italy of Bangladeshi origin. He lives with his family in Rome’s multiethnic Torpignattara neighbourhood, works as a museum steward and plays in a band. When he meets Asia (Carlotta Antonelli, Suburra: Blood on Rome), his exact opposite, she is not how he imagined his first girlfriend would be: Asia is impulsive and lives on instinct. Despite this, the attraction between them is immediate, and Phaim must figure out how to reconcile his love for her with the most sacred of Islam’s rules: no sex before marriage.
With a script based on the director’s own experiences and brimming with witty observations, Bangla is an endearing and relevant story about integration and identity.
Tuesday 17th September
84 min
M
Film Festival
