Bangladeshi filmmaker Rubaiyat Hossain’s “The Difficult Bride” is set to become a historic milestone as the first feature from Bangladesh to screen at the Venice Film Festival. The supernatural feminist drama will compete in the Horizons section before moving on to the Toronto and BFI London film festivals. Variety has exclusively unveiled a clip from the film.
The concept originated when Hossain was seven years old and visited a Dhaka beauty parlor with her mother. She recalled hearing about a bride who died at the salon, a story that remained vivid in her imagination for decades. “Even at that time, I had visualized this story. It was in sepia for some reason,” Hossain said. “It’s something that always stayed with me.”
The film follows Zaineen, played by debutant Zaineen Chowdhury Karim, a bride-to-be whose wedding preparations turn into a harrowing battle with her own body. Hossain initially attempted the story as a short film in 2006. After two decades of development, she wove in her academic background in gender studies and her personal experiences. “My own self and my own body became a part of the film,” she explained. “That is why it became supernatural, because a lot of the things are not logical. That is where the grotesque comes in, that is where the lizards and the snakes come in.”
Hossain emphasizes that the film critiques systemic pressures rather than placing blame solely on men. Azmeri Haque Badhon stars as the salon owner who enforces beauty standards on Zaineen, including a scene depicting facial injections that reflect common practices in Bangladeshi salons. “It’s also about how women can be some of the biggest upholders and sustainers of patriarchy and the patriarchal system,” Hossain noted. “It’s not only men; women also participate in this. It’s a system of power. It takes both to participate in it.”
Set against the backdrop of Dhaka, the film subtly echoes the political unrest of July 2024, including scenes of women being surveilled and policed for their attire and behavior. However, Hossain resists interpreting the movie as a direct response to those events. “I tried to create like a reality of Dhaka where there is political violence outside, there is a lot of violence against women. Women’s rights have always been an issue in Bangladesh,” she said.
Hossain views “The Difficult Bride” as the final installment of a thematic trilogy on Bangladeshi womanhood. Her previous films “Under Construction” and “Made in Bangladesh” explored middle-class and working-class women, respectively. This new work focuses on the ultra-wealthy elite in Dhaka’s Gulshan-Baridhara district. “Even in this gilded cage, even with all these privileges, you can’t be free,” Hossain observed.
Karim, who previously worked as Hossain’s assistant director, was cast after the original lineup was disrupted by the July turmoil. She stepped in during Zoom rehearsals and impressed the director. “She is so beautiful and I feel like she is the character itself,” Hossain said. “I might have auditioned her like around 15, 20 times.” The cast also features Sunerah Kamal and Shimu, all three of whom are Bangladesh National Film Award winners.
While the film is rooted in Bangladeshi culture, Hossain believes the themes are universal. “I see that a woman who is coming from Mexico or Guatemala or Bangladesh or Vermont have same issues when it comes to this specific idea of beauty and submitting,” she said.
Off the set, Hossain has launched a grant and mentorship program aimed at supporting Bangladeshi women filmmakers. She cited compounding structural barriers such as limited funding, restrictions on women’s mobility, the lack of formal film schools, and an industry culture dominated by informal male networks. “There is also an overall assumption and lack of role models,” she added.
“The Difficult Bride” is an international co-production involving France’s Les Films de l’Après-Midi, Bangladesh’s Khona Talkies, Portugal’s Midas Filmes, Norway’s Barentsfilm, and Germany’s Tandem Production. It received support from the inaugural Fondazione Prada Film Fund, with Films Boutique handling global sales.
For Hossain, who teaches part-time at Smith College, the project marked a creative shift. “I’m not tied to social realism anymore,” she said. “I really relied on my body and my instincts to make creative decisions, and I really enjoyed the process.” She is currently developing a film about an undocumented Bangladeshi woman migrating to Lisbon after a cyclone and is adapting J. Courtney Sullivan’s novel “The Cliffs” for television.
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