EVERY GOOD MARRIAGE BEGINS WITH TEARS

Simon Chambers
Great Britain 2006 | 62 Min. | BetaSP, OmeU

East London Muslim girl Sha­ha­nara is chang­ing from pink hot­pants into a saree, to meet her hus­band at the air­port. She has only met him once before, when she was mar­ried in a union arranged by her Bangladeshi family. Sha­ha­nara only agreed to the mar­riage to try and heal old wounds with her father, who had ban­ished her from her family for her West­ern ways. Mean­while, her devout Muslim sister Hush­nara is being groomed for her own arranged mar­riage, some­thing that she doesn’t feel at all ready for. This is a lively, funny and affec­tion­ate film about a British Muslim family, made all the more reveal­ing because of the filmmaker’s long stand­ing friend­ship with them. The film offers a rare, candid and humor­ous glimpse into the life of a family and the clash of gen­er­a­tions and cultures.