‘The Difficult Bride’ to premiere at Venice Film Festival today
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival is set to mark a historic moment for Bangladeshi cinema today, as Rubaiyat Hossain’s "The Difficult Bride" makes its world premiere in the Orizzonti Competition section.
The film is the first feature-length production from Bangladesh to be selected for the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival, one of the world’s most prestigious cinematic events.
The festival began on September 2 in Lido di Venezia, Italy, and will run until September 12. This year, 19 feature-length films have been selected for the Orizzonti section, which focuses on new cinematic languages, emerging trends and innovative approaches to filmmaking. "The Difficult Bride", which has a runtime of 88 minutes, will have a total of eight screenings at the festival.
Its first screening will take place at 7pm local time today at Sala Casino Theatre at the festival’s main venue, Palazzo del Cinema. The screening will begin at 11pm Bangladesh time. Another screening is scheduled for 10pm local time at Sala Volpi Theatre.
The initial screenings are primarily intended for badge holders and festival attendees, while general audiences will be able to watch the film at some of the subsequent screenings by purchasing tickets.
"The Difficult Bride" will also be screened at Sala Darsena Theatre at 2:15pm local time on September 6. On September 7, it will be shown at Astra-2 Theatre at 4:30pm and Astra-1 Theatre at 5pm.
Set around a traditional beauty parlour in Dhaka, the film follows a bride-to-be who finds herself subjected to a series of makeovers and transformations arranged by her family ahead of her wedding. As the pressure and expectations mount, her body itself seems to become a site of resistance. At its centre is a story about the female body, social expectations and the struggle to assert one's own identity.
The film stars Zaineen Chowdhury Karim, Reekita Nondine Shimu, Sunerah Binte Kamal, Azmeri Haque Badhan, Dameer Khan, Shatabdi Wadud, Saberi Alam and Mohammad Bari. Rubaiyat Hossain also wrote the screenplay.
"The Difficult Bride" has received international support from several institutions, including 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.
In the inaugural edition of the Fondazione Prada Film Fund, only 14 films were selected for support from more than 1,200 projects submitted from around the world. "The Difficult Bride" was the only film among the selected projects to receive support at the post-production stage.
The film has also participated 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 together on the production.
Another notable aspect of the film is its predominantly female-led crew. Except for the composer, women have taken the lead roles in every department. Portuguese cinematographer Leonor Teles handled the cinematography, Rafael Marta-Holgar edited the film, while Jonaki Bhattacharya was responsible for production design and costumes.
British composer Jim Williams is also associated with the film’s music. His credits include Julia Ducournau’s acclaimed "Raw" and her Palme d’Or-winning "Titane".
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