Bangladeshi Venice entry The Difficult Bride lands sales deal
Films Boutique will handle international sales for Rubaiyat Hossain’s supernatural feminist drama, set for Venice’s Horizons competition.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
3 min read
Rubaiyat Hossain’s “The Difficult Bride” has picked up international sales representation from Films Boutique ahead of its Venice Film Festival bow, Variety reports.
The supernatural feminist drama has been selected for Venice’s Horizons competition. According to Variety, it will be the first Bangladeshi feature film to screen in the section.
The film is set inside Mayfair, a long-running beauty parlor in Dhaka. Variety reports that the story follows a bride-to-be, played by Zaineen Chowdhury Karim, as wedding preparations pull her into a troubling realm of beauty, religion, memory and fear.
Hossain’s screenplay takes inspiration from an urban legend she heard as a child about a bride said to have died at the salon in mysterious circumstances, according to the report.
A prize-winning cast
The cast includes three Bangladesh National Film Award winners: Azmeri Haque Badhon, Rikita Nondine Shimu and Sunerah Kamal. Chowdhury Karim makes her lead acting debut, while Dameer Khan appears in a guest role.
Principal photography took place in Bangladesh. Post-production was completed in Paris and Lisbon, Variety reports.
“The Difficult Bride” is Hossain’s fourth feature. It received post-production support from the first Fondazione Prada Film Fund.
Films Boutique CEO Jean-Christophe Simon told Variety that the company was proud to be handling Hossain’s new film after the success of “Made in Bangladesh.” He said the movie would help bring “an uncompromising female character” to international audiences and address how patriarchal society views women’s bodies.
Hossain returns after Made in Bangladesh
Hossain’s first feature, “Meherjaan,” released in 2011, won prizes at the Northampton and Tiburon festivals. Her 2015 follow-up, “Under Construction,” screened at Locarno and Stockholm.
Her third feature, “Made in Bangladesh,” premiered in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section in 2019. Variety reports that it also screened at Locarno and BFI London and earned Hossain her first Asia Pacific Screen Award nomination.
The new film is produced by France’s Les Films de l’Après-Midi, with co-production partners Midas Filmes in Portugal, Khona Talkies in Bangladesh, Barentsfilm in Norway and Tandem Production in Germany.
The producers are François d’Artemare, Pedro Borges, Rubaiyat Hossain, Aadnan Imtiaz Ahmed, Ingrid Lill Høtgun and Anna Katchko. Md Shariful Islam and Kevin Chaty are executive producers.
Variety reports that the film also received support from Eurimages, France’s CNC, Portugal’s ICA, Norway’s Sorfønd and Germany’s World Cinema Fund.
Leonor Teles served as cinematographer. Teles won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear for a short film in 2016, becoming the youngest winner of that prize at the time, according to Variety. British composer Jim Williams, whose credits include Julia Ducournau’s “Raw” and “Titane,” wrote the score.
Hossain told Variety that a film comes from years of work, sacrifice, patience, creativity and love from many people, and thanked the team, actors, crew, co-producers and collaborators.
Bangladesh has previously appeared in Horizons through Ishtiaque Zico’s short film “720 Degrees,” produced by Khona Talkies, which became the first Bangladeshi short to screen in the section in 2010, according to Variety.
Variety reported that the selection of “The Difficult Bride” arrives as women’s rights in Bangladesh face pressure from extremist religious groups. The Venice Film Festival runs Sept. 2-12.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.