The Difficult Bride

Zai leads a seemingly perfect existence in Dhaka: she is rich, attractive, intelligent, studious and about to be married to a handsome, sensitive and equally affluent young man — an event to be celebrated by a lavish ceremony as an exercise to uphold tradition and demonstrate wealth. Surrounded by so much perfection, Zai starts to feel suffocated. The array of treatments she undergoes to be spotless on the day of her marriage is close to torture: her mind grows restless, and her golden life slowly starts to show some cracks. The beauty parlour morphs from a haven of feminine wellbeing into a rigid golden cage. Bangladeshi director Rubaiyat Hossain narrates the struggle of a young girl to extricate herself from the impositions of family and society alike. Zai’s perilous path to freedom is corporeal: trapped in an agonising routine that challenges her physical integrity and value, Zai’s body offers some hints of rebellion. Flirting with body horror and playing with colours, animals and textures, THE DIFFICULT BRIDE reveals the delicate threads that weave together patriarchy and social injustice, offering a meditation on the ultimate threat that women face around the world: the internalisation of sexism. (Rebecca De Pas)

In the presence of Leonor Teles (camera).

Rubaiyat Hossain: PRIYO AMI (2005, K), BALIKAR GOLLACHUT (2005, K), SHIMANTO (2005, K), MEHERJAAN (2011), UNDER CONSTRUCTION (2015), MADE IN BANGLADESH (2019)