Director
Phaim Bhuiyan
(Feature film debut)

Starring
Phaim Bhuiyan and Carlotta Antonelli

If you extract the heavy Bruce Springsteen influence from upcoming release BLINDED BY THE LIGHT, relocate the story told in that film from the United Kingdom to Rome and add a few ingredients from AMERICAN PIE, you end up with BANGLA.

Based on the real-life experiences of the first-time director, co-writer and lead actor Phaim Bhuiyan, BANGLA endeavours to comically present what could be a familiar challenge for men of the Muslim faith who live abroad. Basically portraying himself on-screen, 22 year-old Italian-born Phaim (Phaim Bhuiyan) lives at home in inner-city Rome with his sister and their Bangladesh born parents. By day, Phaim earns a living as a security guard at one of Rome’s Museum’s and at night, keeps entertained performing in a band. As Phaim struggles to contain his sexual urges and remain faithful to his religious beliefs, he faces a sterner test than ever before from the moment he lays eyes on a beautiful and carefree Italian girl named Asia (Carlotta Antonelli).

We’ve seen some impressive unofficial biographical films from first-time directors in recent years. This isn’t one of them though! Unfortunately for Phaim Bhuiyan, his inexperience in developing a story and its characters to not only bring them to life on-screen but to also extract the inherent humour that already exists is extremely evident. BANGLA is not anywhere near as interesting as it should be, regularly struggles to be engaging and doesn’t exactly depict its romance so convincingly either.

Phaim Bhuiyan has barely scraped the surface of such relevant content that I believe would have made for a far more engaging film – a challenge back to the beliefs of his faith that are challenging him. Rather, he relies far too heavily on the perceived ability to generate and execute comical aspects from the premise that come off just as desperate as his characters’ amorous state. You can add those other aspects of his life mentioned in my synopsis to the list of poorly developed story points too, which don’t manage to influence the core of the story with any depth or laughter as they ought to. Perhaps all of this heavy pre-production work that our filmmaking novice is carrying is the reason why his on-screen character doesn’t exude the charisma needed for a lead role such as this?  Thankfully though, it is quite effortless to fall for the radiant performance of his co-star Carlotta Antonelli. While her characters effervescent personality certainly gives this film a much-needed burst of something less manufactured and forced, it’s not necessarily enough on its own to recommend the film.

2 stars

Viewer Discretion
M (Nudity and coarse language)

Trailer
BANGLA

Moviedoc thanks Asha Holmes Publicity and the Lavazza Italian Film Festival for the invite to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
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