Banglasia might be the most difficult film to sum up in the entire festival, and it’s definitely going to be the most niche film. This one’s going to be short.
The story itself is even kinda of hard to sum up, so I’ll post the official synopsis:
It begins as the story of a poor Bangladeshi worker in Malaysia who wants to go home so his girl doesn’t marry another man, but when he goes to his scumbag boss to ask for his passport back complications too complicated to recount without getting complicated occur, and it becomes a manic movie about modern-day Malaysia full of shootouts, nationalist rabble-rousers, anti-immigration fearmongers, riots, invasions, and more jokes, gags, and visual non-sequiturs than are strictly legal.
The controversial filmmaker behind the film, Namewee, has travelled to New York to unveil the film for its official worldwide début (it was, and currently still is, banned in Malaysia) at the NYAFF and the festival’s director Goran Topalovic has come out to endorse the film calling it a hilarious and surreal comedy that touches on issues of political corruption, mass hysteria about immigration, and out-of-control nationalism. He later states that while Banglasia makes fun of issues that are of great concern to Malaysian audiences, Americans can definitely identify with them, too.
It’s a bold statement to make and in principle it’s easy to see where Topalovic is coming from, but identifying is one thing and being able to easily follow, understand and enjoy a film like this proves to be a very different story.
It’s not to say Banglasia is a bad film, it’s just so damn niche that unless you’re used to that kind of cinema or know anything about the political statements it makes (which if you don’t, it’s really hard to understand why this was banned for 31 reasons) then you just won’t be able to enjoy the ride.
Banglasia will make it’s début on Friday July 10th with Namewee in attendance at the SVA (school of visual arts) Theatre at 8PM.
Recent Comments