NAYAAK, LOST HERO OF HISTORY (2009)
It starts with a small leftist rally in Dhaka. The speaker is Engineer Shahidullah, along with Anu Muhammad, Moshrefa Mishu, and other members of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources, Power and Port. Environmentalism is still a small part of Bangladeshi political platforms, and these rallies keep waiting to catch a fire. As camera eye shifts from steadier digital to staccato mobile phone (in a time when these technology differences were sharp), the point of view burrows ever closer—perhaps to better project a multitude that is foretold in Marxist teleology, but remains, frustratingly, out of reach. And all the while, Arup Rahee of Leela sings a song of the leader and the moment yet to come, but always also in the distant past.