MUMBAI: A film festival featuring five films by top directors of Bangladesh‘s parallel cinema, a first of its kind event, is being held in Hyderabad starting tomorrow.

The three-day festival, being organised by Annapurna International School of Film and Media, will showcase Quiet Flows the River Chitra and Lalon by Tanvir Mokammel, Shadow of Life by Murad Parvez, Third Person Singular Number by Mostafa Sarwar Farooki and Ontorjatra by Tareque and Catherine Masud.

The 1998 made film Quiet Flows the River Chitra, based on the plight of a Hindu family which refuses to migrate to India after the partition of Indian sub-continent in 1947, has won seven national awards in Bangladesh including those for best direction, best film and best script.

Lalon is a film on the life and persona of famous 19th century mystic poet Lalon Fakir, steeped in Sufi tradition. It stars Bangladesh‘s leading actor Raisul Islam Assad in the title role.

Ontorjatra, directed by Tareque and his American wife Catherine, narrates the tale of a divorced Bangladeshi woman who returns to her homeland along with her son to attend the funeral of her former husband.

Third Person Singular Number is the story of inter-relationships among a convict serving a life sentence, a mentally liberated woman and a singer and asks a question: Can a woman, all on her own, lead a secured life in society?

Finally, Parvez‘s Shadow of Life is the story of a pregnant destitute woman who delivers a girl and how she portrays life of her daughter.