Rubaiyat’s ‘The Difficult Bride’ heads to Chicago after Venice and Toronto

After making history at the Venice International Film Festival and earning a place at the Toronto International Film Festival, National Film Award-winning filmmaker Rubaiyat Hossain’s latest film “The Difficult Bride” has now been selected for another major international platform.

The film has been selected for the international competition section of the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival, one of the world’s major film festivals.

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“The Difficult Bride” is among the 13 films selected for the festival’s International Feature Competition. The film will compete alongside works by internationally acclaimed filmmakers including Japan’s Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and South Korea’s Lee Chang-dong.

The competition lineup also includes Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden”, Kore-eda’s “Look Back”, Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love”, Radu Jude’s “The Diary of a Chambermaid”, Valeska Grisebach’s “The Dreamed Adventure”, Clio Barnard’s “I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning” and Meritxell Colell Aparicio’s “Far from the Trees”, among others. The winner of the section will receive the Gold Hugo award.

The 62nd Chicago International Film Festival will take place from October 14 to 25. Festival authorities announced that 25 films making their North American or US premieres have been selected across different competitive sections. The complete festival lineup will be announced on September 17.

Earlier this year, “The Difficult Bride” created history by becoming the first Bangladeshi feature film selected for the Orizzonti section of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. Following its Venice premiere, the film was also selected for the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.

At TIFF, the film is scheduled for three screenings. The first took place yesterday, at 4:00pm at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 4. The second screening will be held today at 10:00pm at the same venue, while the third is scheduled for September 19 at 12:15pm at Scotiabank Theatre Cinema 7.

Set in contemporary Dhaka, the psychological horror film explores themes of beauty, femininity, marriage and social expectations through a supernatural narrative. Newcomer Zaineen Chowdhury Karim plays the lead role, while Azmeri Haque Badhan, Reekta Nondine Shimu, Sunerah Binte Kamal, Shatabdi Wadud, Saberi Alam and Mohammad Bari appear in important roles.