Giovanni Giommi
Germany, United Kingdom | 2011 | 82 min
Language : Bengali
Subtitle : English
The little island of Banishanta, in the Bay of Bengal just south of Bangladesh, is home to sixty or so prostitutes. But this tiny spot of land will soon be submerged as a result of climate change. Through the struggles of Razia, Khadija and Shephalie, Giovanni Giommi paints an amazing portrait of those who will undoubtedly become the world’s first real “climate-change refugees”.
The little island of Banishanta, in the Bay of Bengal south of Bangladesh, is home to sixty or so prostitutes. In an impressive sequence of the film Bad Weather, a boatload of men are literally “harpooned” by the women, who negotiate their favours or violently pursue uncouth clients. But this tragi-comic scene illustrating the toughness of life on this dot of land is part of a wider drama: an aerial shot reveals the inexorable threat that will soon engulf this “place of perdition”. For the residents of Banishanta, afflicted like those of Sodom – though here the cause is human activity, not divine wrath – are about to become world’s first “climate-change refugees”. The island, which is already experiencing a growing number of cyclones and floods, will in time disappear completely beneath the waves. Filming without comment the daily struggle of Razia, Khadija and Shephalie, Giovanni Giommi gives face and voice to the future victims of the scheduled catastrophe that threatens the countries of the southern hemisphere.
Emmanuel Chicon
Translation BMP Translations