Tanvir Mokammel (born 8 March 1955) is a Bangladeshi filmmaker and writer. He is the recipient of Ekushey Padak in 2017. He won Bangladesh National Film Awards total ten times for the films Nodir Naam Modhumoti (1995), Chitra Nodir Pare (1999) and Lalsalu (2001). He is the current director of Bangladesh Film Institute in Dhaka. His father worked as a magistrate in Narail and his mother was a teacher in a local college.
Career
Since he was a university student, Mokammel worked as a left-wing journalist for landless peasants in rural areas. As a filmmaker he has made six full-length features and fifteen documentaries and short films, some of which have received national and international awards.
His feature films are "Nodir Naam Modhumoti" (The River Named Modhumati), "Chitra Nodir Pare" (Quiet Flows the River Chitra), "Lalsalu" (A Tree Without Roots), "Lalon" , "Rabeya" (The Sister), and "Jibondhuli" (The Drummer). Tanvir Mokammel's prominent documentaries are "The Garment Girls of Bangladesh", "The Unknown Bard", "Teardrops of Karnaphuli", "Riders to the Sunderbans", "A Tale of the Jamuna River", "The Promised Land", "Tajuddin Ahmad :An Unsung Hero", "The Japanese Wife", "Swapnabhumi" and mega-documentary "1971". His movies "Nadir Naam Modhumati" (The River Named Modhumati) and "Chitra Nodir Pare" (Quiet Flows the River Chitra) ranked second and third respectively in the list of 10 best Bangladeshi films, in the audience and critics' polls conducted by the British Film Institute.
Mokammel has written poems, short stories, and newspaper articles on cinema and cultural issues. Tanvir Mokammel's important books are "A Brief History of World Cinema", "The Art of Cinema", "Charlie Chaplin: Conquests by a Tramp", "Syed Waliullah, Sisyphus and Quest of Tradition in Novel" (a work of literary criticism), "Grundtvig and Folk Education" (a book on alternative educational ideas), and a translation of Maxim Gorky's play "The Lower Depths".
|-
| Bonojatri
| Riders To The Sunderbans||Script/Direction
| A documentary film on the Sunderbans
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2007
| Bostrobalikara
| Garment Girls of Bangladesh
| Script/Direction
| Won- Best documentary film of the year by Bangladesh Federation of Film Societies.
|-
| Nissonga Sarathi
| Tajuddin Ahmad: An Unsung Hero
| Script/Direction
| A documentary about Tajuddin Ahmad, the first premier of Bangladesh.
|-
| Swapnabhumi
| The Promised Land
| Script/Direction
| Won - Second Best Documentary Film by Film South Asia Film Festival, 2009, Nepal.
|-
| 2008
| Rabeya
| The Sister
| Script/Direction
| A deconstruction of Sophocles's play "Antigone" on the backdrop of the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971.
|-
| 2011
| 1971
| 1971
| Script/Direction
| A mega-documentary on the liberation war of Bangladesh.
|-
| 2012
| Japani Bodhu
| The Japanese Wife
| Script/Direction
| A documentary on Hariprobha Takeda, the first Bengali woman who wrote a travelogue on Japan and used to read Bengali news from Tokyo Radio for Subash Bose's Azad Hind Fauz.
|-
| 2014
| Jibondhuli
| The Drummer||Script/Direction
| A feature film on the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.
|-
| 2017
| Seemantorekha
| The Borderline||Script/Direction
| A documentary film on the Partition of Bengal in 1947.
|-
|2020
|Rupsha Nodir Banke
|Quite flows the river Rupsha||Script/Direction
|A biographical film on the life of a leftist
|-
|2023
|Titas Parer Manushti: Shaheed Dhirendranath Dutta
|Martyr Dhirendranath Dutta
|Script/Direction
|A documentary on martyr Dhirendranath Dutta.
|-
|2025
|Sojan Badiar Ghat
|
|Script/Direction
|A Feature-length film in development.
|}
Awards and honors
Mokammel received Ekushey Padak, the second highest civilian award in 2017 for notable contribution in Bengali film.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! style="width:25%"| Award
! Category
! Nominated work
! Result
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| rowspan="2"| 1995
| rowspan="9"| National Film Award
| Best Story
| rowspan="2"| Nodir Naam Modhumoti
|
|-
| Best Dialogue
|
|-
|rowspan=4|1999
| Best Film
| rowspan=4|Chitra Nodir Pare
|
|-
| Best Director
|
|-
| Best Story
|
|-
| Best Dialogue
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |2001
| Best Film
| rowspan="3"|Lalsalu
|
|-
| Best Director
|
|-
| Best Dialogue
|
|-
| 2007
| Chalachchitram Padak