Director Imtiaz Ahmed Bijon’s film Matir Projar Deshe has won the Best Film award at the 7th Chicago South Asian Film Festival 2016 in the USA, competing against 14 films from different countries.

He received the award on October 9. The film was screened at the festival earlier that day.

The five-day festival began on October 6 and featured films from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the USA.

Matir Projar Deshe was the only Bangladeshi and Bangla-language film in the competition segment of the event.

Earlier, the film had its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival that was held between May 19 and June 12.

Matir Projar Deshe stars Jayanta Chattopadhyay, Rokeya Prachi, Mahmudur Aninda, Sheuli Aktar, Monir Ahmed Shakil and Chinmoyi Gupta in different roles.

Set in rural Bangladesh, it features the story of 10-year-old Jamal and his mother. The story shows how the local school authorities refuse to take Jamal in because his mother was once a prostitute.

Matir Projar Deshe will be screened at the upcoming Dhaka International Film Festival scheduled to be held in Dhaka in January 2017.

Subsequently, it will be released in local cinemas.

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