Bangladeshi documentary Pankauri, directed by Jafar Muhammad, has been selected for the documentary programme The River as an Archivist at the seventh River Festival in New Delhi.
The festival will take place at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts from 24 to 26 September.
The 18-minute-17-second observational documentary focuses on the Karatoya River in Panchagarh and Mujibur Rahman, who spent 55 years collecting stones from the river.
Muhammad began working on the documentary in 2019 and completed it in 2025. Mujibur Rahman died while the film was in post-production.
Pankauri was also screened at the 12th Kolkata People’s Film Festival, where the official programme lists it as an 18-minute documentary.
The film won Best Short Documentary at the third Chittagong International Documentary Film Festival in January 2026.
According to Muhammad, the documentary explores the Karatoya as a transboundary river shared by Bangladesh and India.
It focuses on the river, along with the memories and lives that have developed around it over the years.
