In The Bleeding Lotus, the eminent Australian writer John W. Hood has reconstructed the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War in all its dimensions and subtexts as seen through the films made in that country in the subsequent decades. The diabolic night of March 25, 1971 when the Pakistani army indiscriminately attacked and slaughtered thousands of ordinary people in Dhaka using deadly war weapons, comes alive through the pages of the book. The heroic armed struggle of the country's youth against the 'colonial' rule of West Pakistan has since inspired many filmmakers. Their films - both documentary and feature - have addressed issues concerned the war and its aftermath.