Today is the 65th birth anniversary of internationally-acclaimed Bangladeshi filmmaker Tareque Masud.

Tareque Masud was born in Nurpur village under Bhanga Upazila in Faridpur on December 6, 1956. He studied at a Madrasa until 1971.

Masud was a film director, film producer, screenwriter and lyricist.

He won three international awards, including the ‘International Critics’ FIPRESCI Prize’ in the Directors’ Fortnight section outside competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for his famous film ‘Matir Moina’. The film also became Bangladesh’s first film to compete for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Masud made his feature film ‘Matir Moina’ (The Clay Bird)-based on his childhood experience in the Madrasa.

Tareque was involved in the film society movement since his university days and started his first film ‘Adam Surat’, a documentary on the Bangladeshi painter SM Sultan, in 1982.

‘Muktir Gaan’, his feature-length documentary on the Liberation War of the country, brought record audience and became a cult classic.

Besides, he was also a pioneer of the independent film movement in Bangladesh. Tareque is a founding member of Bangladesh Short Film Forum, the leading platform for independent filmmakers.

He organised the country’s first International Short and Documentary Film Festival, which is held on a biannual basis to this day in 1988.

He died in a road accident on the Dhaka-Aricha highway in Ghior Upazila of Manikganj on August 13, 2011 while returning to Dhaka from Manikganj after visiting a filming location.

Masud received ‘Ekushey Padak’, the highest civilian award of Bangladesh posthumously, in 2012.