Screening War: Gender, Sexuality and Nationhood in Cinematic Representation of Liberation War in Bangladesh

This research examines representation strategies of Liberation war of Bangladesh and also discusses how the issues of gender within that war narrative has been represented in Bangladeshi movies using ten movies from mainstream and independent films. Taking Stuart Hall’s theories of representation as broader theoretical background, the study analyses how the war has stereotypically been represented within the dichotomous representation of self-vs. other and how the national identity was represented according to the identity of dominant community of Bangladesh overlooking the existences of ‘other’ groups. This paper also found that the films portrayed the nation in ‘sacred’ and ‘pure’ image of motherhood and the representation of femininity, masculinity and sexuality has sprung from that feminized image of nationhood. Hence, representation of gender and sexuality was predominantly prejudiced in films around social construction of heterosexuality, manhood and womanhood, and around the exclusivity of female sexuality. The findings suggest that although representation strategy have been shifting due to national and global political changes, films in both mainstream and independent production have consistently used dominant notions of gender and heteronormativity.