Mirror Game

Amitabh Reza Chowdhury's 2016 Bangladeshi film is built on a strange occupation. Ayna is a gifted actor who can find no place in the theatre, and instead makes his living serving prison sentences on behalf of people with money. Each time he takes on another identity, behaves like that person in court and in prison, completes the sentence and walks out. By showing how such an arrangement is possible, the film criticises the justice system and class difference, with the total exemption of the rich at its centre. Ayna falling for his neighbour and deciding to take one last job pulls the story towards a classic crime shape. Chanchal Chowdhury plays several identities in the same film. It is one of the few Bangladeshi productions to have drawn commercial and critical attention together. Who it's for: viewers who like South Asian crime films and stories about identity. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a realistic legal account; the plot rests on exaggeration.