A three-day Bangladesh film festival was hosted by the UP Film Institute (UPFI) and the Embassy of Bangladesh in Manila from May 6 to 8 at the UPFI Film Center (Film Center).

The movie Mujib: The Making of a Nation (Mujib; 2023 ) was the first film to be screened at the festival.

According to IMDb website, Mujib is a “biopic of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” the Father of the Nation of Bangladesh.

The screening came after the ribbon-cutting ceremony led by UPFI Director Robert Rownd and Ambassador of Bangladesh to the Philippines F. M. Borhan Uddin, and attended by officials of both UP Diliman and Bangladesh embassy.

In an invitation to UPDate Online, Rownd and Uddin stated, “The festival would feature the diverse and creative aspects of Bangladeshi films, highlighting the brilliant and rich cinematic legacy of Bangladesh.”

Following Mujib’s screening was a dinner that featured a generous spread of Bangla food for all the attendees.

On May 7, the Film Center screened two movies, The Beauty Circus (2022), a story about Beauty, a circus performer; and Adventure of Sundarbans (2023), about a group of children and their “journey to the mangroves of Bangladesh.”

And on the festival’s last day, May 8, the Film Center showed movies Rickshaw Girl (2021) and The Salt in Our Waters (2020). Rickshaw Girl is a story of a teenage girl who disguised as a boy so she can earn a living by driving a rickshaw, “on the gritty streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh,” the festival program stated. Meanwhile, The Salt in Our Waters tells about an artist from a bustling city who relocates to a coastal village to find inspiration.

Admission to the film festival was free.