AllMovie

The Clay Bird is an astonishingly complex debut narrative feature from writer/director Tareque Masud. Rooted in autobiography, the film impresses with a combination of raw dramatic impact and moral complexity. Set in the chaotic and dangerous East Pakistan, soon to become Bangladesh through a bloody revolution against Pakistani military rule, the film is first and foremost a human story about people caught up in forces beyond their control. From the taciturn orthodoxy of Kazi (Jayanto Chattopadhyay) to the open-minded political activism of his brother, Milon, Masud and co-screenwriter Catherine Masud (his wife) take pains to show the humanity that informs the characters' religious viewpoints. The story is told predominantly from the viewpoint of Anu (Nurul Islam Bablu), a sweet-natured boy who gets sent off to a harsh religious school, but Masud takes pains to flesh out all the supporting players, with a particularly fond view of outsiders, from Rokon (Russell Farazi), the troubled boy who befriends Anu at school, to the downtrodden ferryboat operator who has some wisdom to impart to Milon, despite his lack of formal education. The characters with the most extreme (and in the end, destructive) views in the film are not presented as villains, but as people who think they are doing what is best. This works so well in part because Masud gets such sympathetic and believable performances from his actors. The inclusive look at Islam is joyously summed up in a bahas, a religious debate sung as a debate between a man and a woman, that occurs late in the film. In addition to being a rich, rewarding drama, The Clay Bird opens a clear-eyed portal into a region and an important time in world history that few Americans are familiar with.