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Narrative & characters

Bangla – The Series takes shape as a hybrid narrative intertwining romantic comedy, generational storytelling, and the discourse on diasporic identity. The protagonist, Phaim Bhuiyan (who also signs the concept and direction), is a young Italian of Bangladeshi origins living in Torpignattara, a multicultural Roman neighborhood often represented in the media as an ethnic periphery. The series opens on an unstable equilibrium: on the one hand, the religious and family constraints that define his cultural universe; on the other, his personal and relational aspirations, beginning with his relationship with Asia, an Italian girl with whom he starts a romance.

The narration develops in a self-reflexive and metacinematic key, echoing the style of the 2019 film of the same name but adapting it to the logic of television seriality. The first-person voiceover and frequent direct addresses to the camera create an effect of intimacy and irony, drawing the viewer closer to the protagonist’s point of view. This device allows the series to maintain an expressive lightness that does not evade but rather makes accessible complex issues such as belonging, desire, religious education, and structural racism.

Among the central themes is sexuality, not as a mere narrative driver but as a cultural, psychological, and relational knot. For Phaim, a practicing Muslim, premarital sex is forbidden; for Asia, it is a natural expression of intimacy and mutual trust. This divergence generates ongoing tension throughout the series, addressed through negotiation and compromise. Asia tries to mediate, adapt, and invent alternative forms of intimacy, showing herself to be understanding yet also willing to question herself. Their relationship thus becomes the place where dynamics between self-determination and attachment, faith and desire, the internalization of norms and openness to the other are played out—and complicated.

Asia’s narrative arc is particularly significant: she gradually approaches Phaim’s religious and cultural context, participating in Muslim rituals (such as visiting a mosque) and even considering giving up her Erasmus program in order to keep the relationship alive. Her character is not represented as “sacrificed” but rather as conscious of the affective and cultural complexity that the relationship entails. This highlights an asymmetrical dynamic, in which it is Asia who takes most of the steps toward the other, often sidelining her own goals.

Around the two protagonists revolve figures that further nuance and articulate the identity and social themes. The Bangladeshi family is portrayed as rooted in its own culture but also somewhat open to accepting their son’s relationship with an Italian woman, while living in a condition of economic precarity. Phaim’s father, for example, works as a delivery rider and suffers an assault that leaves him with a broken arm: an episode that introduces into the narrative the issue of micro-violence and systemic vulnerability, without however lapsing into a dramatic register. The mother, sister, and neighborhood friends compose a mosaic of voices and positions that resists any monolithic representation of the Bangladeshi community.

Asia’s family also serves as an interesting counterpoint, departing from traditional family models. Asia lives with her father, while her mother, separated, has built a new family with a woman, with whom she has had another child. This family framework is not thematized centrally, but emerges in the narrative with naturalness, suggesting a nuanced representation of the plurality of contemporary family models. Asia’s father plays a more visible role: his desire to appear welcoming and modern toward Phaim’s culture translates into a nearly caricatural participation, animated by good intentions but often displayed in awkward or performative ways. This trait becomes comic material but also opens a critical space on a certain rhetoric of inclusivity, which may conceal unconscious forms of exotization.While opting for a light and narratively accessible tone, Bangla – The Series consciously addresses themes related to the representation of second generations, cultural negotiation in intimate relationships, and the invisible forms of social exclusion, bringing to the center of the screen a young Italian Muslim—ironic and self-directed—who chooses to narrate himself “from within,” with his own tools.

Stereotypes & strategies of inclusion

The dynamics of Bangla – The Series often hinge on a delicate balance between breaking stereotypes and their ironic re-elaboration. The sequences analyzed here—taken from episodes 2 and 7—highlight different strategies of inclusion: from the comic register of the family lunch, to the fragility of romantic compromise, up to the more dramatic dimension of the violence suffered by Phaim’s father. Together, these scenes show how the series alternates lightness and moments of reflection in order to convey the complexity of diasporic experience and intercultural relationships.

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“A bottle of wine and a guitar” – the lunch between the families (episode 2)

The first meeting between Asia’s and Phaim’s families takes place at her parents’ home, where they prepare a Bangladeshi lunch to welcome their guests. The situation immediately unsettles the couple: when the invitation is proposed, Phaim finds himself having to confess the relationship, but his family declares that they had always known and that they wish for his happiness, even with an Italian girl. The lunch is filled with moments of embarrassment—the youthful stories of Asia’s parents, the kiss between her mother and her new partner that leaves Phaim’s mother speechless—but it concludes with a scene of strong symbolic value: Phaim’s father takes up a guitar and begins an Italian song, which everyone joins in. Phaim’s voice-over comments: “Thousands and thousands of years of cultural differences erased by a bottle of wine and a guitar.”

The scene, with its comic and disenchanted tone, overturns the stereotype of the intercultural encounter as inevitable conflict. On the contrary, it suggests that the sharing of everyday rituals—food, music—can become a space of mediation. At the same time, the irony of the final remark invites us not to read harmony as definitive, but as a fragile and perhaps provisional moment of inclusion.

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“Half Bangladeshi and half Italian” – the quarrel with Asia (episode 7)

In the seventh episode, the protagonists’ relationship erupts into open conflict. Phaim confesses to Asia that he believes he has betrayed her, triggering the girl’s reaction, who had waited for him for a long time and adapted on many occasions. During the argument, Phaim reveals his inner voice: “You take for granted that I feel comfortable with everyone because I dress like this and speak Roman, but you don’t know that there’s a voice in my head telling me: you will always be half Bangladeshi and half Italian. I wanted to be like everyone else.” These words reveal the weight of internalized stereotypes, the feeling of never being able to fully belong to either world. Asia replies by highlighting the sacrifices she has made for the relationship, including giving up Erasmus and trying to integrate into a religious context that is not her own.

The confrontation takes place during Eid, when the families are gathered: private tension spills into the public space, involving the parents in a quarrel that brings cultural differences to the surface. The scene underscores how inclusion is never a given once and for all: compromises laboriously built can crack in the face of conflicts of trust or diverging expectations. Phaim’s inner voice further stresses that stereotypes are not only external but also operate from within, instilling a sense of inadequacy that undermines the stability of the relationship.

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“I am not safe in my own home” – the father as delivery rider (episode 7)

Also in episode 7, another revelation marks a turning point. Phaim discovers that his father, who had claimed he broke his arm falling from his bicycle, had in fact been assaulted while working as a delivery rider. The confession is bitter: “I’ve traveled the world but I’m not safe in my own home.” This moment breaks with the light tone of the series and directly introduces the issue of systemic racism and the everyday violence faced by migrant workers.

The figure of the father, far from the stereotype of the authoritarian head of the family, is represented in his vulnerability: a dignified man yet marked by precarity, forced to endure abuses that often remain invisible. The narrative choice to reveal the truth only after Phaim himself experiences situations of discrimination (smoke bombs thrown into the flower shop, another rider beaten) ties the individual experience to a collective discourse. In this way, the series does not merely denounce violence but situates it within a broader reflection on the migrant condition, giving the father’s character an autonomous voice not reduced to stereotype.The three sequences analyzed show how Bangla – The Series alternates comedy and drama in order to dismantle and re-elaborate stereotypes tied to ethnic, religious, and social identity. Inclusion is never presented as a linear achievement but as a fragile and contradictory process, made up of moments of harmony and rupture, of micro-violence and of daily negotiation. It is within this oscillation that the series finds its representational strength, inscribing the experience of second generations within the landscape of contemporary Italian seriality.

Conversations

Lucrezia Leombruni interviews Phaim Bhuiyan, retracing the stylistic, narrative, and thematic choices of the series Bangla (Diregiovani, April 12, 2022).

Strategies

The production of Bangla – The Series is situated within a particular context of Rai Fiction’s policies: that of experimenting with new languages and new authorial voices in collaboration with Rai Cinema, with the aim of reaching younger audience segments. The decision to entrust writing and directing to Phaim Bhuiyan, already author and protagonist of the 2019 film of the same name, reflects a strategy of investing in authorial continuity and in the valorization of an internal perspective on second generations. This production choice responds to the need to legitimize forms of authorial and internal representation—stories told from the point of view of those who have lived them—while reinforcing Rai’s image as a public service attentive to diversity.

From a distributional perspective, the initial placement on RaiPlay, on April 13, 2022, signals a clear intent to target primarily the digital platform audience, younger and accustomed to on-demand consumption. Only later did the series arrive on Rai 3 (April 27), consolidating the production’s dual identity: on the one hand, an experimental laboratory for the public service’s streaming offer; on the other, a proposal compatible with the logic of generalist television programming. The subsequent arrival on Netflix in July 2022 further confirms the strategy of multiplatform and international circulation, aimed at expanding the audience and situating the series within a transnationally competitive context.

The production choices thus reflect a balance between cultural mission and industrial positioning. Filming in Tor Pignattara, the neighborhood already featured in the film, responds to the intention to authentically represent a symbolic space of multicultural Rome, turning it into a recognizable narrative setting. At the same time, this choice contributes to outlining a model of inclusion grounded in urban rootedness: diversity is not abstracted or spectacularized, but inscribed in the everyday life of a working-class neighborhood.

In terms of promotional rhetoric, Bangla – The Series was presented as an “ironic and multiethnic portrait of Italy seen through the eyes of the new generation of immigrants born and raised in the country,” as stated in the RaiPlay presentation sheet. Communication therefore emphasizes two elements: on the one hand, the lightness of comedy, which guarantees accessibility and generalist appeal; on the other, the generational dimension, which allows Rai to situate its production within a discourse of innovation and inclusion, reinforcing its public service role. However, this same rhetoric risks placing the representation of diversity within a reassuring frame, where identity and social conflicts are lightened by the comic tone.The industrial strategy adopted with Bangla thus reveals a double register: valorizing a second-generation author and a multicultural urban imaginary, inscribing the series within the discourse of inclusion, while at the same time keeping it compatible with the logics of popular entertainment and multiplatform circulation. In this balance between authorial authenticity and institutional mediation, the series’ position within Rai Fiction’s catalog is defined: an attempt to open up spaces of innovative representation without straying too far from the reassuring codes of mainstream seriality.

Communication rhetorics

The communication surrounding Bangla – The Series was built around a set of recurring keywords: irony, multiculturalism, and lightness. In promotional materials, the production is presented as a romantic comedy capable of addressing the theme of integration in an accessible way, avoiding dramatic tones and instead relying on everyday and recognizable registers.

A central element is the emphasis on the generational perspective: the series is described as the gaze of the new generations of immigrants raised in Italy, able to narrate the multicultural experience from within and not as a mere object of external observation. In this sense, communication strongly insisted on the authorial continuity with the film and on the fact that it is Phaim Bhuiyan himself who signs the writing, direction, and performance.This promotional rhetoric contributes to presenting Bangla as a “different” production compared to the tradition of Rai seriality, a symbol of a public service that seeks to renew itself and to reach younger and metropolitan audiences. At the same time, the emphasis placed on irony and comedy risks softening the more problematic conflicts that emerge in the series—from structural racism to religious tensions—by repositioning them within a reassuring and popular framework. Inclusion is thus narrated as a possible and desirable process, but one made appealing through a communication that privileges normalization and lightness over conflict.

Conversations

Circulation patterns

Bangla – The Series was launched on April 13, 2022 as a digital-first Rai Fiction production, available in preview on RaiPlay. This choice confirms the experimental function that the platform has assumed within Rai’s strategy: a privileged space for products aimed at a young audience accustomed to on-demand consumption and less bound by the logics of television prime time.

A few days later, on April 27, 2022, the series was also broadcast on Rai 3. This demonstrates the intent to reach a generalist audience sensitive to issues of inclusion, experimenting with a positioning different from the major mainstream successes of the public broadcaster.

A significant step came in July 2022, when the series also arrived on Netflix, marking a rare case of a Rai production made available on a global OTT platform. This move had a dual effect: on the one hand, it expanded the international visibility of the series by placing it in a competitive global catalog; on the other, it strengthened Rai’s image as a player capable of engaging with the logics of multiplatform distribution.The distribution trajectory of Bangla – The Series—from RaiPlay to Rai 3 and finally to Netflix—thus reflects the tension between public service mission and industrial strategies oriented toward transnational circulation. Seriality linked to second generations thereby becomes not only an opportunity for inclusive representation, but also a competitive positioning tool: a product that originates as an intimate and local story (Torpignattara), but finds legitimation precisely through its ability to circulate across multiple platforms and reach different audiences.

Reception

Bangla – The Series received a positive reception from both critics and audiences, albeit with a moderate media impact. Initially distributed on RaiPlay (April 13, 2022), it was broadcast on Rai 3 (April 27, 2022) and entered Netflix on July 20, 2022.

Critics and viewers praised the freshness and originality of its portrayal of the second generation in Italy, highlighting the value of authenticity brought by Phaim Bhuiyan as author, director, and actor. The romantic comedy was noted for its ironic tone that does not renounce depth in addressing cultural and identity issues.

On the awards front, the series won the Nastro d’Argento for Best TV Series (Comedy), the Flaiano Prize for Best Male Performance in the Youth Section (Phaim Bhuiyan), and the Terni Film Festival Award for Best TV Series. It was also nominated for the Diversify TV Awards in the category “Race and Ethnicity Representation – Scripted.”

While critics praised the narrative register and the authenticity of the setting, they rarely developed explicit reflections on inclusion and diversity. In fact, the critical debate did not consistently thematize issues of inclusion and diversity. Whereas official communication emphasized the “ironic and multiethnic” dimension of the series, most reviews focused on the lightness of the comedy and on the depiction of the Roman neighborhood as a lively narrative context, rather than on reflections about identity conflicts or the forms of discrimination represented.

Italian and foreign press

Italian Press 

Lorenzo Ciofani, “The sentimental adventures of a second-generation Roman: Phaim Bhuiyan returns with an eight-episode series on RaiPlay,” Cinematografo, April 13, 2022.

«The ambition to do something different materializes above all in the choice of an international, agile format that follows the stages of human drama with humorous voltage, with a profoundly Roman spirit of fatalism, and rendered comical through its intersection with the rites and customs of the culture of origin.
Bangla – The Series is also Rai’s way of portraying an open and fluid generation, offering an interpretation of reality attuned to the contemporary rather than to its exact copy, as well as a mirror in which young people in search of identity and in need of alternative narratives can recognize themselves». 

Read the interview

Giovanni Vitale, “Bangla – The Series: ceci n’est pas un bangladino!,” Cinemonitor, 17 maggio 2022.

«The work is probably the first in Italy to be written, directed, and performed by a second-generation Italian. One of the first self-representations of those subjects who in our country are marginalized because they are not directly involved in public debate; since they are always described from an external point of view, in fact, their very identity is often hetero-defined.
Instead, for the health of our democracy, stories are welcome in which the so-called “new Italians” recount their lives, lived at the intersection between two cultures only seemingly far apart, ironically playing with differences and similarities». 

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Aldo Grasso, “Bangla – The Series is on RaiPlay: the review by Aldo Grasso,” IoDonna, June 29, 2022.

«In recent years, Rai has experimented with a few short-format series aimed at an audience still to be captured, often using the key of adapting successes from other countries.
With Bangla we are faced with an advancement of this strategy: in fact, it is the sequel to a film released in 2019, with the idea therefore of updating and expanding a narrative universe that was already partly familiar.»

Read the interview