Bangladeshi cinema reaches another major international milestone today as Rubaiyat Hossain’s The Difficult Bride makes its world premiere at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.
The film competes in the Orizzonti section, marking the first feature-length production from Bangladesh to enter the section. The festival began on 2 September in Lido di Venezia and will run until 12 September. This year’s Orizzonti selection features 19 feature films focused on new cinematic languages, emerging trends and innovative approaches to filmmaking. The Difficult Bride runs for 88 minutes and has eight screenings at the festival.
Its first screening takes place at 7pm local time today at Sala Casinò in the festival’s main venue. That is 11pm in Bangladesh. A second screening will follow at 10pm at Sala Volpi. Both are listed for pass holders and press and industry attendees.
Public screenings begin on 6 September, with a 2:15pm show at Sala Darsena. On 7 September, the film will screen at Astra 2 at 4:30pm and Astra 1 at 5pm.
Set around a traditional beauty parlour in Dhaka, the film follows a bride-to-be preparing for her wedding under mounting family expectations. A series of beauty treatments and makeovers gradually turn into a struggle over her body and identity. As the pressure builds, her body itself becomes a site of resistance.
The film stars Zaineen Chowdhury Karim, Rikita Nondine Shimu, Sunerah Binte Kamal, Azmeri Haque, Dameer Khan, Shatabdi Wadud, Saberi Alam and Mohammed Bari. Hossain also wrote the screenplay.
The Difficult Bride has received international support from the Council of Europe’s Eurimages, France’s CNC, Portugal’s Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, Italy’s Fondazione Prada Film Fund, Norway’s Sørfond and Germany’s World Cinema Fund.
At the inaugural Fondazione Prada Film Fund, only 14 projects received support from more than 1,200 submissions worldwide. The Difficult Bride was the only selected film to receive funding at the post-production stage.
The film has also taken part in the EAVE Producers Workshop, the Berlinale Co-Production Market and the Work in Progress section of the Les Arcs Film Festival. Artists and crew members from Bangladesh, India, the United States and several European countries worked on the production.
The project also stands out for its predominantly female-led crew. Women lead every department except music. Portuguese cinematographer Leonor Teles handled the cinematography, while Raphaëlle Martin-Hölger edited the film. Jonaki Bhattacharya worked on production design and costumes.
British composer Jim Williams created the music. His previous credits include Julia Ducournau’s Raw and her Palme d’Or-winning Titane.
