The New Nation - Internet Edition

Art & Culture Report

Rabeya (The Sister) is a feature film deconstructed from Sophocle’s play 'Antigone’ placed on the backdrop of the war between Bangladesh and Pakistan in 1971.

Script & direction: Tanvir Mokammel, length: 110 minutes (approximately), format: 35 mm, photography: Anwar Hossain

Editing: Mahadeb Shi, art direction: Uttam Guha, dress: Chitralekha Guha, music: Syed Shabab Ali Arzoo.

Story:

During the War of Liberation in 1971, in a remote village on the bank of the River Rupsha, Rabeya and Rokeya, two young sisters lived. Both of their parents were dead. They were living with the religiously conservative household of their uncle (aunt's husband). Emdad Kazi, their uncle, rich and powerful-landed gentry of the area, is a local Islamic leader.

For his political ambition, Emdad Kazi collaborated with the marauding Pakistan Army against the wishes of the villagers. Khaled, the only brother of the two sisters, a college student enlightened with secular ideas, joined the Bangalis' resistance guerrilla group to fight against the Pakistan Army. Rabeya, the elder of the two sisters, was greatly influenced by the secular and progressive ideas of her brother Khaled and their idealist father who was a schoolteacher.

Khaled's guerrilla group was on the other side of the Rupsha River fighting against the Pakistani soldiers and local collaborating forces loyal to Pakistan known as the 'Razakars.' In a guerilla operation, Khaled was killed in a skirmish.

The Pakistani captain ordered that the dead body of this young guerrilla would not be allowed to be buried. It had been kept on the embankment beside the river as a display to scare off the villagers so that nobody any more would dare to oppose the army. The dead body was kept under the vigilance of the retainers of Emdad Kazi. Nobody dared to bury Khaled's dead body. One night Rabeya secretly proceeded to bury her brother. Rabeya was shot and killed. The villagers rose up. The Bangali guerrillas won the final battle and treated Rabeya as a martyred.