For its 9th edition, the London Bengali Film Festival turns its lens on identity — what it means to be Bengali today, in London, in Dhaka, in Kolkata, and everywhere in between.
This year's programme spans five days of cinema drawn from Bangladesh, India, the UK, and beyond with films about women under pressure, queer lives, folk horror, diaspora masculinity, animated utopias, and a bandit queen who refused to be erased. Together they make the case that Bengali storytelling has never been more alive, more varied, or more urgent.
The festival opens with a VIP drinks reception before the first screening — an invitation-only gathering for guests, filmmakers, and friends of the LBFF.
DAY 1 - RED CARPET RECEPTION & OPENING NIGHT PREMIERE (22 APRIL 2026)
Directed by: Raihan Rafi
Time: 8:00 PM – 10:33 PM
Date: Wednesday, 22nd April
Duration: 2 hrs 52 min
Language: Bengali
Cinema: Genesis Cinema, Mile End E1
Address: Migration Museum, 26 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1EW
Logline
Dhaka is a pressure cooker for women — and four of them are about to let off steam.
About the Film
Directed by Raihan Rafi (Poran, Toofan), this bold Bangladeshi drama follows four women navigating the social, personal, and psychological pressures of urban Dhaka in a hyperlink narrative structure. Starring Shobnom Bubly, Nazifa Tushi, Snigdha Chowdhury, and Mariya Shanto, the film uses interlocking stories to build an explosive portrait of women trapped between ambition and expectation in a city that demands their silence. Released in Bangladesh for Eid-ul-Fitr 2026 to critical acclaim and box office success, this UK Premiere marks the film's first international festival outing.
Pressure Cooker
DAY 2 - Thursday (22 APRIL 2026)
Jasmine That Blooms in Autumn
Directed by: Chandradeep Das
Time: 2:00 PM – 2:15 PM
Date: Thursday, 23rd April
Duration: 15 min
Language: Bengali, Hindi
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
Love blossoms between two elderly women at an old age home while the spectre of patriarchy looms large overhead.
About the Film
Set in a modest old-age home in India, Chandradeep Das's award-winning short follows Meera and Indira — two women from different backgrounds who find themselves falling in love in the autumn of their lives. Knowing the repercussions, they communicate through hidden gifts and recorded messages, their tenderness constrained by a world that refuses to make space for them. Winner of Best Indian Narrative Short at the Kashish Pride Film Festival and selected for BFI Flare, this is a rare and quietly radical film — one that centres queer love in a demographic that cinema almost never sees.
Directed by: Reena Dutt
Time: 2:15 PM – 2:45 PM
Date: Thursday, 23rd April
Duration: 13 min
Language: English
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
A queer South Asian American woman forces a confrontation with her mother — and with everything left unsaid between them.
About the Film
Directed by Reena Dutt, Crossing the Desert follows a queer woman who makes a reckless, desperate decision to push her South Asian immigrant mother into finally accepting her relationship. Tender and unflinching, the film sits at the intersection of diaspora, family expectation, and queer identity — asking how much of ourselves we owe the people who raised us, and how much we owe ourselves. Its UK Premiere at LBFF makes it a genuinely special addition to the programme.
Crossing The Desert
Nirvana
Directed by: Asif Islam
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:25 PM
Date: Thursday, 23rd April
Duration: 85 min
Language: Bengali (silent)
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
Three factory workers search for inner peace in a world that has forgotten how to listen.
About the Film
Shot in stark black and white, Asif Islam's debut feature is a silent film — not by tradition, but by artistic necessity. What began as a practical workaround on a noisy factory floor became a radical creative choice: a film that trusts image, movement, and ambient soundscape to carry the full emotional weight of three lives colliding. Winner of the Special Jury Award at the Moscow International Film Festival and a Jury Award in Paris, Nirvana has toured festivals across Kazakhstan, Morocco, Spain, and India. Its London premiere brings one of Bangladesh's most quietly radical films to a UK audience for the first time.
PINJAR (The Cage)
Directed by: Rudrajit Roy
Time: 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Date: Thursday, 23rd April
Duration: 2 hrs 17 min
Language: Bengali
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
A bird-catcher, a child, and three lives ensnared — cages come in many forms.
About the Film
Doctor-turned-filmmaker Rudrajit Roy's debut feature is a meditation on entrapment — literal and invisible. Set in rural and urban Bengal, Pinjar follows five characters bound by patriarchy, poverty, grief, and violence, whose lives mirror that of a wild bird torn from its forest. Inspired by Bengali masters Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, and Mrinal Sen, Roy's film has toured the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, Asian Film Festival Barcelona, IFFI Toronto, and KIFF, earning exceptional reviews for its assured storytelling and striking cinematography. A film about freedom — and the quiet cruelty of denying it.
DAY 3 - FRIDAY (23 APRIL 2026)
Directed by: Soumodeep Ghosh Chowdhury
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:43 PM (with speaker event)
Date: Friday, 24th April
Duration: 1 hr 43 min
Language: Bengali
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
She believes she is pregnant. The world believes she isn't. Both may be right.
About the Film
Premiering at the 30th Kolkata International Film Festival's Indian Language Competition, this unflinching drama confronts phantom pregnancy — a real and devastating medical condition in which a woman experiences all physical signs of pregnancy without a foetus. Soumodeep Ghosh Chowdhury places this rare condition in a socially marginalised community, exposing the stigma of infertility and the brutal patriarchal logic that blames women. Followed by a live speaker event on women's mental health, this screening is both a cinematic experience and an invitation to a vital conversation.
Silence of the Womb (No'mas No'din Ontahin)
The Exile
Directed by: Samman Roy
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:21 PM
Date: Friday, 24th April
Duration: 1 hr 22 min
Language: Bengali
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NSLogline
In 1960s Bengal, a man enters the forest to grieve his wife — and finds something waiting for him.
About the Film
Set in the late 1960s in rural Bengal, The Exile is a slow-burn folk horror that follows Gouranga, a young man tormented by guilt after his wife's death, who ventures into a dense jungle in search of closure — and instead encounters a vengeful supernatural presence. Samman Roy's debut feature, acquired by Buffalo 8 Distribution for global release on Amazon Prime and Fandango, is rooted in Bengali horror literature and the rich folkloric tradition of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. It won a prize at India's prestigious Film Bazaar, and critics have praised its atmospheric cinematography and refusal to rely on jump scares. Rare, eerie, and deeply Bengali.
DAY 4 - Saturday (25 APRIL 2026)
7th Cycle
Directed by: Hanna Wahab
Time: 12:00 PM – 12:11 PM
Date: Saturday, 25th April
Duration: 11 min
Language: English, Bengali
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NSLogline
A student film that transcends its origins — fantasy, drama, and family across the cycles of life.
About the Film
This UK short film blends fantasy and family drama to explore something quietly profound. Shot in English and Bengali, 7th Cycle is a student production that punches well above its weight, and its director will be present for an introduction and Q&A. A reminder that the next generation of Bengali-British filmmakers is already here.
Directed by: Rafina Khatun
Time: 12:11 PM – 2:45 PM
Date: Saturday, 25th April
Duration: 40 min
Language: Gujarati, Hindi
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
The loudest silences are the ones we keep for other people.
About the Film
Rafina Khatun's documentary is a raw, intimate portrait of women navigating marginalisation in their own communities. Produced through the Rough Edges Uncode Fellowships — a programme supporting underrepresented South Asian voices — What Will People Say? gives language to experiences that have long been hidden behind the weight of social expectation. A powerful companion piece to the day's programming on gender, voice, and visibility.
What Will People Say? (Log Kya Kahenge)
Sultana's Dream
Directed by: Isabel Herguera
Time: 2:45 PM - 4:05 PM
Date: Saturday, 25th April
Duration: 1 hr 26 min
Language: Bengali, Spanish, Hindi, English, Basque, Italian
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
What if the dangerous ones were the ones kept indoors?
About the Film
Based on the 1905 Bengali feminist sci-fi story by Begum Rokeya Hossain, this multi-award-winning animated film from Spanish director Isabel Herguera follows Inés, a young artist in India who discovers Sultana's Dream — a vision of Ladyland, a utopia where women rule and men are kept safely at home. Each act of the film is rendered in a different visual style: ink and watercolour, shadow puppets, and traditional Mehndi patterns. Winner of the Grand Prix at Annecy, Zagreb, and Brussels; nominated for the European Film Awards. A genuinely extraordinary piece of animation and one of the most important feminist films of recent years.
Directed by: Tanim Noor
Time: 5:00 PM – 6:50 PM
Date: Saturday, 25th April
Duration: 1 hr 50 min
Language: Bengali
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
A miserly man is visited by ghosts. Not to haunt him — to save him.
About the Film
Director Tanim Noor's joyful, star-studded Bangladeshi hit is a loving riff on A Christmas Carol, relocated to Eid eve in Dhaka's Mohammadpur neighbourhood. Zahid Hasan leads an extraordinary ensemble — including Chanchal Chowdhury, Jaya Ahsan, and Aupee Karim as three ghostly visitors — in a film that balances comedy, horror, and genuine emotional warmth. Released on Eid-ul-Azha 2025, Utshob became one of the highest-grossing Bangladeshi films of the year, earning USD $146,000 in North America alone. Its tagline: 'Do not watch without family.' Bring your family.
Utshob (উৎসব / Festival)
DAY 5 - CLOSING CEREMONY SUNDAY, 26 APRIL 2026
London Boys
Directed by: Arun Nangla & Laura Pavone
Time: 11:00 AM - 12:22 PM
Date: Sunday, 26th April
Duration: 1 hr 22 min
Language: English
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
Behind the bikes, the brotherhood, and the bravado — men trying to find where they belong.
About the Film
World-premiered at SXSW London 2025, London Boys is a documentary about the 'Bangladeshi Bad Boys' — a group of second-generation Bangladeshi bikers based in Shoreditch and Brick Lane. Co-directed by Arun Nangla and Laura Pavone, the film offers an unexpectedly tender and vulnerable portrait of men navigating masculinity, Islamophobia, and generational racism at the intersection of British and Bangladeshi identity. Screened at Bertha DocHouse, Rich Mix, and the South Asian Heritage Trust, this is an essential east London story — and one that belongs at this festival.
Devi Chowdhurani
Directed by: Subhrajit Mitra
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:14 PM
Date: Sunday, 26th April
Duration: 2 hrs 14 min
Language: Bengali
Cinema: BLOC Cinema
Address: Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Logline
Cast out, taken in, and forged into a legend — Bengal's first female freedom fighter.
About the Film
The closing film of the London Bengali Film Festival is a landmark: Devi Chowdhurani is the first official Indo-UK co-production for any Bengali-language film, backed by ADited Motion Pictures (USA), HC Films and Moringa Studios (UK), and granted co-production status by both the BFI and India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Directed by National Award-winner Subhrajit Mitra and starring Bengali cinema icons Prosenjit Chatterjee and Srabanti Chatterjee, the film traces the transformation of Prafulla — a young woman abandoned by her in-laws — into Devi Chowdhurani, a fierce bandit queen who leads the Sanyasi and Fakir Rebellion against British colonial rule in 18th-century Bengal. Epic in scale, rooted in history, and scored by Pandit Bickram Ghosh. A fitting close to a festival that celebrates the full range of Bengali cinema.