Carlotta Antonelli as Asia and Phaim Bhuiyan as Phaim in Bangla.
Camera IconCarlotta Antonelli as Asia and Phaim Bhuiyan as Phaim in Bangla. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Bangla film review: life in multicultural Italy

Lucy RutherfordEastern Reporter

BANGLA offers an insight into multicultural Rome with a standard but quaint rom-com about first love.

Director and writer Phaim Bhuiyan plays the protagonist, 22-year-old Phaim whose parents moved from Bangladesh to Italy before he was born.

He introduces the audience to his home, Rome’s multicultural Torpignattara neighbourhood, where he spends his time playing with his band and working as a museum steward.

PerthNow Digital Edition.
Your local paper, whenever you want it.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

As a Muslim he abstains from alcohol, pork and sex before marriage; the first two are no big deal but Phaim is struggling with the last one and sees sex everywhere.

When he meets the punk rocker Asia (Carlotta Antonelli), Phaim not only has to navigate his first relationship but also the cultural differences between them.

Bangla is a recognisable story about being a child of immigrants and Phaim’s feelings of not quite belonging to either his family’s culture or the culture of the country he was born into will be familiar to many.

For a debut film, Bhuiyan as a director is skilled at portraying a side of Rome far away from the tourist snaps.

His cinematography is full of life and colour complemented by the music, both Italian and Bangladeshi, performed as part of the story.

However, his skills as an actor are not as proficient and his strangely deadpan performance has the effect of undermining some of the comedy and making his interactions with other characters feel oddly forced.

Antonelli as Asia is lumped with a panic pixie dream girl character; she wears cool clothes and likes horror movies, but any glimpse of a personality underneath is entirely down to Antonelli’s acting.

Bangla works best when Bhuiyan is clearly depicting his own lived experience of life in multicultural Italy.

THE ESSENTIALS

Bangla (M)

Directed by: Phaim Bhuiyan

Starring: Phaim Bhuiyan, Carlotta Antonelli, Simone Liberati

Three stars

Review by Lucy Rutherford

Showing as part of the Lavazza Italian Film Festival running October 3 to October 23

More Lifestyle

Buoyancy film review: important, vital, gripping cinemas