Sonata – a documentary
on autism
by Turaj Ahmad
One out of every 155 newborn children worldwide is a victim of autism —a disorder of brain function that appears early in life, generally before the age of three resulting in problems with social interaction, communication, imagination and behavior. If the statistics accumulated and published by the Autism Society of America (ASA) is anything to go by, it projects quite a bleak picture for Bangladesh, meaning that there are roughly 968,000 children with autism.
A lack of proper knowledge regarding the disorder mostly in the rural regions of the country has caused people to label an autistic child a ‘mentally retarded’ person. This of course quite commonplace and many families fail to come to terms with the child’s condition both emotionally and financially, resulting in the child spending the rest of his life as a cast-away.
That in itself is not even half the story. If the disorder is addressed through proper therapy, children at different levels of the spectrum of autism can provide moments of inspiration through their activities that can counter the countless despairs endured by their parents and close ones.
The documentary film ‘Sonata —A Story of Autism’ demonstrates just that in its depiction of the life of Tamzid— a child diagnosed as ‘autistic’ —through interviews, testimonies and re-enactments, following his progress from the age of 1 through to 7. The initial warning sign of Tamzid’s condition came from his inability to make any form of speech, recalls his mother, Rola, while the child’s condition could not be treated in Bangladesh at the time.
A twist of fate was on the cards, however, as Rola received a law scholarship to the United States —an opportunity she grasped keeping the best interest of her son at the forefront. Currently, Tamzid is reaping the rewards of extensive therapy and although he still has a long way to go in terms of social communication, he has demonstrated an inclination to music with a natural gift for the keyboard— hence the title of the film.
A documentary is a project of ‘Paix Media,’ a non profit production company based in Washington DC. Sonata extracts the positives from Tamzid’s progress in attempts to demonstrate that autism can be addressed through therapy.
‘While diagnosis and therapy of autism have come leaps and bounds in the United States over the past 25 years, the same cannot be said of Bangladesh and especially the rural areas where the knowledge of autism is limited and the provision of diagnosis has only just begun to emerge,’ says Haider Newaz Chowdhury, executive producer, Paix Media.
‘The main objective of Sonata is to create social awareness about autism and separate it from other conditions, and to show the general public how therapy makes a significant difference to autistic children,’ he adds.
The production company also hopes to finalise a merger with a large Non-Government Orga-nisation in the near future, from which centres for therapy and medication for autism can be implemented. Directed by Sentu Roy, the film is co-produced and edited by Sagheer Faiz and the makers intend to broadcast it extensively in the rural areas. Quite a bit of work is yet to be done on the project before that aspect can be undertaken, informs Haider, as the film has to be dubbed in Bengali if it is to reach its intended audience.
‘The plight of autism is clearly evident among the poverty stricken people in the rural who do not have the knowledge regarding the disorder as we are starting from ground zero but we intend to raise awareness among them,’ says Haider.
‘However, it could be sometime in July when we broadcast the film as we want to avail all the proper facilities as well as sponsors before that,’ he concludes.
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