A Documentary by

SAIFUL WADUD HELAL

 
  

 

Each year at the end of spring hundreds of thousands of people gather for seven days in a remote village in Bangladesh known as Badarpur. They sing and dance in remembrance of their beloved saint “Lengta”. Hundreds of similar religious congregations are held in Bangladesh throughout the year.
The people of this country struggle every day with nature for survival. They acknowledge, appreciate and revere all the forces of nature. Religious faith provides them with added strength and courage. The sapling of religious faith brought over by Sufis and saints from the dry, scorched earth of Middle East has blossomed in the moist, olden soil of Bangladesh. Nevertheless, the fruit it bore is considered forbidden by fundamentalists- as forbidden as Gandham (the forbidden fruit of paradise).

Today any and every place- from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Madrid to London- is vulnerable to the threats of the prevailing “culture of bombing”. Even the deceased saint and his followers cannot escape this terror. In a world where people blinded with self-interest don’t hesitate to give up their values at a bargained price, can we possibly call these selfless, greedless people “fanatics”?

Bangladeshi filmmaker Saiful Wadud Helal’s Bishwsher Rong (Color of Faith) could not have been released at a more appropriate time, especially when the issue of Islamic fundamentalism and racial profiling is a hot topic in the press. It’s a must see. This film made it’s world debut at the World Film Festival in Montreal under the category of documentary film. - Amrita Choudhury (montrealserai.com)

 

Bishwsher Rong undermines the ethnocentric generalizations and imagery projected by the western media on Islamic people, using a unique cultural movement, in this case in Bangladesh, as a stage. In an era where the word terrorism is easily associated with all Muslim peoples (despite valiant disclaimers) by most American television stations, this film takes us on a spiritual and practical journey, and questions the concept of religious identity and association.

 

 

"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it." - Voltaire
Interview
 
 
   
Bishwsher Rong(Color of faith)   
Executive producer: Shafiul Wadud, Munir Hossain.  
A mira media production.