Talented Bangladeshi filmmaker Tauquir Ahmed’s film ‘Oggatonama' (The Unnamed), which has already bagged quite a number of prestigious awards, won the Special Mention Award at the 19th edition of Religion Today Film Festival 2016 in Trento, Italy.
Beginning on October 7, the festival screened ‘Oggatonama’ on October 12. The festival organisers handed over the crest and certificate to Tauquir Ahmed on October 15 for winning the prestigious award.
After receiving the award, Tauquir Ahmed shared the news through his Facebook profile on Saturday. He wrote, “‘The Unnamed’ (Oggatonama) wins special Mention Award at Religion Today Film Festival, Trento, Italy. I express my gratitude to my team.”
The story of the film ‘Oggatonama’ portrays the tragic life of expatriate workers and their family, who travel to abroad to earn their livelihood. The central character, a poor farmer from a remote Bangladeshi village facing challenges at every step of this storyline, sometime from the bureaucracy, sometime from his peers and finally from the traditional mindset after receiving the dead body of an ‘Oggatonama’–the unnamed. Circumstances challenged him to face a situation involved the death news of his son who was an expatriate, working in the Middle East as an unskilled labour.
To note, ‘Oggatonama’ earlier won a special jury mention at the Gulf of Naples Independent Film Festival on May 21 and Tauquir Ahmed won best film director award for the film in the Kosova Film Festival titled ‘Goddess on the Throne’. The film saw its world premiere at Marche du Film, the business counterpart of the 69 Cannes Film Festival on May 17 this year. On the other hand, the film will also participate in the forthcoming Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles. l