Professionalism too much to ask for?

I did not see the war, I was born in '79 and grew up abroad. However, I am always eager to know our history. I have read about "Stop Genocide," a documentary made by one of the greatest movie directors of our country Zahir Raihan and I've been trying to watch this movie for the last few years. So, when I heard that Star Cineplex was screening "Stop Genocide" on the occasion of our Independence Day, I was exhilarated. I even invited two of my friends who are foreigners.

On March 25, we went to Star Cineplex and at the ticket counter, I specifically asked for tickets for "Stop Genocide." The theater staff behind the ticket counter mentioned that "Stop Genocide" would be followed by a feature film, "Joi Jatra" in the same theater and we don't have to purchase separate tickets to see the feature film. Although, watching "Stop Genocide" was our main objective, we figured it would be nice to see the feature film as well.

At 5:30pm, the show started but "Stop Genocide" was not being screened. Instead, the show started with "Joi Jatra." We were wondering what exactly was happening. After 20 minutes we spotted an usher and asked him why "Stop Genocide" was not being screened. Apparently, he didn't know anything about it either. My friend and I were irate at this point and didn't feel like sitting at the theater any more, since we were there, primarily to see the documentary. The feature film was just like a bonus to us. We wanted to speak to the management and the person representing the management tried to give us excuses like, the print of "Stop Genocide" was in real bad condition and only one projector was functioning at that point etc. I politely told him that he just didn't get my point or didn't try to understand me. I was not particularly irate because the documentary I was trying to see was not being screened. The frustrating issue here was the total lack of professionalism.

How could they have handled this appropriately, you may ask. Well, for starters, the guy behind the ticket counter could have informed me that "Stop Genocide" was not going to be screened. The ushers at the theater could have told us about the technical difficulties or whatever problems they were having. But no one seemed to care enough.

I don't care about the fact I purchased three premium tickets and didn't even see the movie. What really tormented me was the level of unprofessional behaviour of the management and staff at Star Cineplex which claims to be this and that but doesn't live up to its claims. My friends, who had never been to any movie theater in Dhaka, were asking me if this was how movie theaters were operated in Bangladesh. I couldn't say anything, what could I? I guess professionalism is still an unfamiliar concept in our country.