Tareque Masud obituary

Gifted film director whose 2002 feature The Clay Bird won an award at Cannes

Tareque Masud in Cannes in 2002. The Clay Bird won the Fipresci prize at that year's festival.
Photograph: Olivier Laban-Mattei/AFP

At the Cannes film festival in 2002, Matir Moina (The Clay Bird) from Bangladesh came as a revelation. Shown in the Directors' Fortnight competition, the film gained the International Critics' award (Fipresci) for its "authentic, moving and delicate portrayal of a country struggling for its democratic rights", thus becoming the first Bangladeshi film to win a prize at Cannes. The Clay Bird was the first film selected by Bangladesh to compete for an Oscar for best foreign-language film and to be given wide international distribution. It was also the first fiction feature directed by Tareque Masud, who has been killed in a car crash at the age of 54.

Bangladesh helmer Masud dies at 54

Masud with wife Catherine at Marrakesh International Film Festival in 2002.

LONDON -- Bangladeshi director Tareque Masud, 54, and ATN News CEO Ashfaque Munier, 52, known as Mishuk Munier, died Saturday in a car crash near Dhaka.

Masud's wife, Catherine -- a producer, writer and editor -- was seriously injured in the accident, which killed three other people.

The group were thought to be scouting locations for Masud's next project, "Kagojer phul" (The Paper Flower), when their vehicle was in collision with a passenger bus in heavy rain.

Both men were listed as witnesses at the war crimes tribunal probing genocide and other atrocities committed during the Bangladesh Liberation War in the early 1970s.

Masud's first feature documentary, 1995's "Muktir gaan" (Song of Freedom), was about a group of musicians during the war.

His fiction feature debut, "Matir moina" (The Clay Bird), looked at events leading up to Bangladesh's independence in 1971. It won the Fipresci prize at Cannes' Director's Fortnight in 2002.

By: www.variety.com

Top Bangladesh film-maker dies in road crash

Tareque Masud

Award-winning Bangladeshi film-maker Tareq Masud died Saturday along with four other people in a road crash west of the country's capital, Dhaka, police said.

Masud and four others, including the chief executive of Bangladesh's private ATN television news channel, Mishuk Munier, died on the spot when the minibus carrying them collided head-on with a bus at Ghior, police said.

Film-maker Tareque Masud dies in Bangladesh bus crash

Tareque Masud

Masud, 54, died on Saturday with three other people when a minibus in which he was travelling collided with a bus.

His wife, producer Catherine Masud, was seriously injured in the accident, as was Bangladeshi artist Dhali al Mamun.

Celebrated filmmaker Tareque Masud dies in car crash

Tareque Masud

Celebrated Bangladesh filmmaker Tareque Masud has been killed in a car crash. He was 55.

The director died along with local TV boss Ashfaque Munier Mishuk on Saturday after their vehicle collided head-on with a bus outside Dhaka.

Masud's wife Catherine and painter Dhali Al Mamun were also passengers in the car and they are in a serious condition in hospital, according to reports.

The award-winning director made a series of critically-acclaimed films, including 2002's Matir Moina - which was the first Bangladeshi movie to be nominated for best foreign-language film at the Oscars. The film was based on his experiences as a student during the country's war of independence in 1971.

Education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, says, "It is a very unfortunate incident for us. Masud through his movies had given a new dimension to liberation war. Mishuk was an immensely talented journalist. It is a national loss."

Thousands of people paid their respects at the Central Shaheed Minar monument in Dhaka on Sunday.

Bangladesh filmmaker Masud dies in crash :: CBC News

Bangladesh filmmaker Masud dies in crash :: CBC News

Tareque Masud

Tareque Masud, an award-winning Bangladeshi filmmaker whose work was recognized at the Cannes Film Festival, has died after a weekend bus accident.

Masud was among five minibus passengers who died in a crash near the Bangladesh capital city of Dhaka on Saturday.

Bus driver arrested

He blames microbus driver

Bus Driver

The driver of the bus that killed five persons, including filmmaker Tareque Masud and media personality Ashfaque Munier Mishuk, in Manikganj on Saturday was arrested yesterday from Gangni upazila of Meherpur.

A team of Detective Branch (DB) of Police from Dhaka in cooperation with Meherpur DB picked up bus driver Jamir Uddin, 50, from Chougachha village around 12:30am and brought him to Dhaka in the morning.

Senior Assistant Commissioner of DB Mashiur Rahman, who led the arrest, told The Daily Star, “Jamir was hiding in the residence of a sister of his second wife in a bid to escape to India.”

The driver was yesterday produced before a press briefing at the DB headquarters on Minto Road where he claimed himself innocent and blamed the driver of the microbus, which collided head-on with his bus, for the accident.

He said, “I was on my way to Aricha from Dhaka and it was raining heavily. When I spotted the microbus coming from the opposite direction I repeatedly honked the horn and brought down the speed of the bus to 30-40 kilometres an hour to avoid collision. But the driver of the microbus was driving rashly on the wrong side of the road.”

He claimed that he wanted to surrender immediately but fled instead fearing mob beating. From Joka, the accident spot, he went to Chapainawabganj and later to Meherpur, Jamir Uddin added.

He also claimed that he has a valid driving licence and has been driving buses for 20 years. He has been serving Chuadanga Deluxe for the last one year.

“Jamir had been driving for 20 hours non-stop without any sleep and that might have made him disorientated,” said Mashiur Rahman.

The senior assistant commissioner of DB also said that Jamir would be handed over to Manikganj police as a murder case has been filed with Ghior Police Station after the accident on August 13.

Tareque, his production crew Wasim and Jamal, Mishuk, and microbus driver Mostafizur Rahman were killed on Saturday when the Chuadanga-bound bus collided head-on with their microbus on the Dhaka-Aricha highway at Ghior in Manikganj.

Tareque's wife Catherine Masud, painter Dhali Al Mamun, his wife Dilara Zaman Jolly and production staff Saidul Islam sustained injuries in the accident.

The team was going to Manikganj town to meet the district deputy commissioner for permission to shoot for Tareque's latest project "Kagojer Phool" after visiting a shooting spot in Shibalaya upazila.


By: Daily Star