West Coast Premiere

In this playful romantic comedy, Bangla, Phaim, an awkwardly charming 22-year-old Italian-Bengali, panics when he falls in love with an impulsive and spirited Italian girl. The attraction between them is immediate, and Phaim will have to figure out how to reconcile his love with his life full of rules.

Echoing the best of recent cinema hit The Big Sick, the film takes its own unique look at the multicultural experiences of second generation South Asian Europeans in the Italian context, and specifically of those living in Rome. The narrative, which puts a whimsical lens on the clash of cultures as an everyday reality for many second-generation immigrants, is based on the director’s own life, who as the lead plays a fictionalized version of himself.

Highlighted in Rotterdam’s International Film Festival in the Big screen competition section and recently screening at the Chicago Film Festival, Bangla brings in a fresh new voice and pioneer of a new generation of Italian filmmakers.