Director Rubaiyat Hossain has unveiled an exclusive clip from her supernatural feminist drama “The Difficult Bride,” which will become the first Bangladeshi feature film to screen in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons competition. The film traces its origins to a story Hossain heard during childhood in a Dhaka beauty salon, an anecdote that remained with her for decades before she began developing the concept.
The narrative centers on Zaineen, a bride-to-be navigating wedding preparations that escalate into a conflict with her own body. Hossain first adapted the material as a short film in 2006 before expanding it into a feature. She incorporated elements from her academic background in gender studies alongside personal experience, resulting in a film that employs supernatural and grotesque imagery to explore themes of bodily autonomy and beauty standards. The production is set in a salon called Mayfair and addresses how women themselves can reinforce patriarchal systems through enforcement of beauty norms.
The film’s Dhaka setting incorporates elements reflecting the country’s broader social landscape, including depictions of surveillance and policing of women’s behavior and clothing. Hossain resists framing the work as a direct response to specific recent events, instead positioning it within a longer historical context of political violence and gender-based issues in Bangladesh. The project marks the third installment in what Hossain describes as a trilogy exploring different socioeconomic classes of Bangladeshi womanhood, following her earlier features “Under Construction” and “Made in Bangladesh.”
Zaineen Chowdhury Karim makes her acting debut in the lead role, having transitioned from her position as Hossain’s assistant director. The ensemble cast includes multiple Bangladesh National Film Award winners. “The Difficult Bride” is an international co-production involving partners from France, Bangladesh, Portugal, Norway, and Germany, with support from the Fondazione Prada Film Fund. Following its Venice premiere, the film will proceed to the Toronto and BFI London film festivals. Beyond this project, Hossain is developing additional works set in Lisbon and pursuing a television adaptation.
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