Bangladesh’s ‘Delupi’ selected for main competition at London Bridge Film Festival, screening on 24 October

Bangladeshi film ‘Delupi’ has found fresh success on the international stage. Directed by Mohammad Tawqir Islam, the film has been officially selected for screening in the main competition section of the London Bridge Film Festival in the United Kingdom.

The news comes while the glow of a major honour in North America has yet to fade. Just three days earlier, actor Chironjit Biswas won the Best Actor award at the prestigious Tasveer Film Festival for his performance in ‘Delupi’.

Director Tawqir himself confirmed the new achievement on social media on Tuesday night (20 October). He said the film will be screened on the festival’s main stage on the evening of 24 October.

However, for various practical reasons, no one from the film’s cast and crew in Bangladesh will be able to attend in London in person. The director has therefore urged expatriate Bangladeshis living in the United Kingdom to go to the cinema, watch the film and represent the country’s culture on this international stage.

Before London, ‘Delupi’ had already been screened and praised at several other important film festivals around the world. It was shown at the renowned Rotterdam International Film Festival in the Netherlands, one of Europe’s top festivals.

It also received wide praise from international critics for its distinctive story and realistic visual language after screening at Italy’s Caravan Film Festival. Its journey from one international festival to another now carries special significance for Bangladeshi cinema.

Produced under the banner of Footprint Film Production, ‘Delupi’ is built around real events in Bangladesh’s Khulna region in 2024. It portrays the devastating humanitarian disaster caused by a breached river embankment and the local political tensions that came with it.

One of the film’s biggest features is that, instead of professional actors, local people from the region itself performed in its various roles. As a result, the screen carries an intimately close picture of life in that riverside community.

Alongside Chironjit Biswas, the cast includes Aditi Roy, Rudra Roy and Zakir Hossain, along with other local residents of Khulna. Through its unsparing portrayal of grassroots people’s crises, the struggle of a river-centred community and political tensions, the film is establishing Bangladeshi cinema in a new position of honour internationally.

All eyes are now on the 24 October screening. How ‘Delupi’ is received in the main competition of the London Bridge Film Festival, and whether it earns any recognition there, will be known from the festival stage itself.