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‘The Wrestler’ Review: Metaphors Clash in a Restrained Masculine Saga from Bangladesh

Debuting directorIqbal H. Chowdhury takes a measured, often-opaque approach to unlocking masculine self-destruction in 'The Wrestler'

In Bangladesh, the sport of boli khela — or the wrestler game — is a meticulous, methodical affair, a tone Iqbal H. Chowdhury re-creates for his debut feature, “The Wrestler.” Straddling a line between observational and oblique, the film seems designed to fascinate and frustrate in equal measure, gesturing toward masculine boundaries in a rural, often overcast coastal setting without fully articulating them. Its central focus is the elderly wrestler/wrestling trainer Moju (Nasir Uddin Khan), an aging fisherman whose frustrations with his lack of recent catch lead him to challenge local champion Dofor (AKM Itmam). These scenes take on a pulsing irony — given the gruff violence inherent to the men’s hobby — and they make even the wide-open coastal setting feel like a liminal space scored mostly be gentle waves, assisted by sparse, phantasmagorical notes from composter Ranadas Badsha.

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