Entertainment
‘The Difficult Bride’ Review: Feminist Body Horror Meets Social Inequality in Rubaiyat Hossain’s Visceral Breakout Thriller
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Published 11/3/2026 1:59:58 AM
'The Difficult Bride' Review: Rubaiyat Hossain's Breakout Thriller
It takes a bold director to combine body horror with Sylvia Plath, but then again Rubaiyat Hossain has never shied away from pushing the envelope. From her 2011 debut “Meherjaan,” widely attacked by conservative forces, to “Under Construction” and more recently “Made in Bangladesh,” the maverick director’s focus on gendered spaces and female sexuality have made her an outlier in Bangladeshi cinema. With “The Difficult Bride” — which premiered in Venice and is seeing a highly successful festival run, including competition slots in Tokyo and London — she’s finally got her international breakthrough, benefiting from the current popularity of feminist body horror films yet beholden to no one in her lusciously tactile handling of fabric and skin.
This heightened attention to surfaces is hardly random: Zaineen (Zaineen Chowdhury Karim, perfectly cast) is getting married, and that means she needs beauty treatments to make her look like a goddess. No blemish can be ignored, no extra ounce of flesh can be left flapping. In the highly isolating world of Dhaka’s upper classes, the exterior is what matters (well, let’s face it, not just in Dhaka), and when the impossibly perfect beauty salon owner (Azmeri Haque, “Rehana Maryam Noor”) asks her clients if they’re happy, she’s not inquiring about their expectations for future bliss.
From the outside, Zaineen’s life is enviable. She lives with her mother (Saberi Alam Motaher) in a gated community and has a chauffeur to take her wherever she wants. With her American English inflection, occasional Zoom therapist and lapsed gym membership, she’s a card-carrying member of the global elite, hoping to get into the creative writing program at NYU. What’s more, fiancé Aarman (Dameer Khan) has all the makings of a perfect husband: he’s equally wealthy, supportive of her writing, handsome and good in bed. He’s not fond of her marijuana habit, but surely that can be worked out.
Beauty treatments begin before the engagement party, when Zaineen goes to the Mayfair salon to be assessed and prescribed a regimen of scrubs, peels, creams, injections and poultices, applied by Minoti (Reekita Nondine Shimu) under the owner’s watchful eye. The salon entrance’s resemblance to a funeral parlor is an early sign that something is amiss, and that’s before Zaineen begins hallucinating creatures that creep and slither, including lizards, catfish, snakes and snails whose viscous drag is evocatively captured thanks to Marie-Clotilde Chery’s effective sound design.
As the wedding approaches, the bride-to-be’s anxiety manifests in disturbing ways: her skin is breaking out, her hair is shedding, nasty scratches disfigure her legs, and something appears to be wriggling under her skin. When abusive cops arrest her for trying to score weed in a dangerous part of town, she offers them a bribe, equivalent to $20,000, which even Aarman finds excessive. But nothing will stop this wedding, including the ghost of a bride (Sunerah Binte Kamal) whose fate is a warning not to be ignored.
“The Difficult Bride” was partly shot in the director’s own home, and Hossain clearly knows this privileged milieu inside out. Especially striking is how Zaineen moves from her hermetic apartment to the enclosed space of a chauffeur-driven car to Mayfair’s isolated temple of beauty or a park so devoid of people it must be part of a private country club. Given that Dhaka is one of the globe’s most densely populated cities, the world Zaineen inhabits requires a great deal of control to maintain this kind of isolation. When the outside world does intrude, such as menacing guards viewed from her bedroom at night, or poor people clamoring around her car window, she’s reared to experience it as threatening, and yet she’s unable to shake the lure of the outside world.
The film excels in capturing this duality of enclosed airless spaces, representing control, contrasted with the siren call of chaos and freedom. (This perfectly captured in the lyrics of Yoanax0x’s ridiculously infectious song “LUVERGiiRL”: “Physically a whore/Mentally a Luvergiirl.”) On the face of it, Zaineen shouldn’t be unhappy: Aarman encourages her education and career, painting a perfect picture of them as a couple living in Brooklyn and walking their dog in Prospect Park. But that perfection, like outward beauty, can be suffocating. She reads “The Bell Jar” while he reads William Dalrymple’s “The Last Mughal,” her unspoken need for escape contrasted with his immersion in the history of power. (Though let’s not forget that Dalrymple’s subject lost his power, together with India’s independence.)
Slightly less satisfying is Minoti’s character, a major figure in the film who feels underwritten just when more is expected. Hossain uses her as a working-class foil to Zaineen’s privilege, with Minoti’s discomforting subservience a key factor in the dynamic between lowly beautician and rich client. The script allows her one moment of rebellion, yet it feels almost lost alongside Zaineen’s increasing erraticism, and needs some kind of follow-up.
Elements from Hossain’s previous films — animal imagery in “Under Construction” and textiles in “Made in Bangladesh” — are pushed to the fore in “The Difficult Bride,” to great effect. Portuguese DP Leonor Teles’s superb closeups heighten the impact of Hossain’s emphasis on surfaces, whether glittering sequins decorating richly embroidered textiles or stomach-churning abscesses rupturing pus. Crimson reds, a crucial color for Bangladeshi fabrics, double as associative metaphors, and Jonaki Bhattacharya, credited as costume stylist as well as production designer, deserves special praise for bringing together such a stunning collection of garments.
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The Japan IP Market will be back in Cannes next May for a second straight year. The Cannes Film Market and TIFFCOM, the content market of the Tokyo International Film Festival, are again teaming up on the event, and the 2027 edition will run May 14-15.
The return was revealed at TIFFCOM in Tokyo, during a conference on how Japan can forge new international partnerships after its stint as Country of Honor in Cannes. Alexandra Zakharchenko, head of industry programs at the Cannes Film Market, was among the panelists.
“The success of Japan, Country of Honor showed what can happen when a focused national presence creates lasting opportunities for the industry. The Japan IP Market is one of those outcomes: a collaboration that extends beyond a single edition and gives Japanese intellectual properties greater access to international partners,” said Guillaume Esmiol, executive director of the Cannes Film Market. “I’m delighted that we are continuing this work with TIFFCOM to create more opportunities for rights holders to connect with international producers and partners, develop new adaptations and bring their stories to global audiences.”
The Japan IP Market first ran in May 2026, one of the initiatives tied to Japan’s turn as Country of Honor at the Cannes Film Market. It put Japanese rights holders in the same room as industry professionals from abroad via pitches, one-on-one meetings and industry discussions. Kadokawa, Shochiku and Toei Company were among the companies taking part. The speaker lineup included Fujimura Tetsu, executive producer of “One Piece” and founder and CEO of Filosophia, Inc.
“The Japan IP Market is about creating the right conditions for business opportunities between Japanese rights holders and international companies,” said Zakharchenko. “By bringing them together in Cannes, we can help turn growing interest in Japanese content into concrete adaptation deals and acquisitions, while fostering new collaboration opportunities.”
Shiina Yasushi, executive adviser at UNIJAPAN and CEO of TIFFCOM, said the partnership with the Cannes market plays an important role for Japan’s audiovisual industry. He described the Cannes market as the biggest market attached to any film festival in the world. “Meeting the international professionals who gather there and creating together with them is the key to nurturing Japanese IP into global content,” he said.
Ikeda Kaori, managing director of TIFFCOM, said the first edition had shown how keen producers and partners worldwide are on Japanese IP. “Through the continued partnership linking Cannes in May with the Tokyo IP Market in October, we are pleased to offer more professionals the opportunity to meet Japanese rights holders directly and discover the rich diversity of Japanese IP,” she said.
The 2027 roster of companies and the rest of the program will be unveiled in the months ahead.
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Mexico’s beloved Guillermo del Toro descended on the 24thMorelia Film Festival like the rockstar he is, greeted by hordes of shrieking fans that impressed even the most jaded in the crowd.
In town to present the much-anticipated 3D Re-Release of “Pan’s Labyrinth,” he was everywhere all at once, holding a masterclass where tickets were as elusive as a seat at Cannes that went on for nearly three hours and a free-wheeling press conference that extended past its time limit.
It was his third time at the fest, 20 years after his multi-Oscar winning “Pan’s Labyrinth’ first played there and years later with his 2018 best picture Academy Award winner “The Shape of Water.”
Before the presser kicked off, Del Toro, an Honorary Doctorate recipient from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), received the Filmoteca UNAM Medal, an honor also bestowed on Alfonso Cuarón, in town to support his son Jonas Cuarón’s opening night film, “Campeón Gabacho,” which he produced.
Alongside Del Toro were festival director Daniela Michel, “Pan’s Labyrinth” producer Bertha Navarro, his then young lead Ivana Baquero and DP Guillermo Navarro, who took home the cinematography Oscar for his stunning work on the anti-fascist fable.
Reflecting on a question posed midway through the press conference about what has stayed the same and what has changed over the 20 years since “Pan’s Labyrinth,” del Toro responded with tears.
“The state of our species and society today goes beyond anything we could have imagined back then. But I recognize the same sadness and despair. It pains me deeply to see one, two, or three generations fail the next. We’re handing down a world in ruins, morally, socially and spiritually fractured, with the very fabric that once allowed us to tell fables and parables falling apart.”
Asked whether he knew beforehand if “Pan’s Labyrinth” would be well received, Del Toro recounted how his collaborations with both Navarros sustained him through all the challenges they faced.
“We embarked on an adventure that was financially horrifying but cinematically beautiful,” he said.
“You never know how a film will be received. We only found out when we screened it for the first time at Cannes. We got that famous standing ovation that lasted more than 22 minutes, and from that moment on, everything changed. It changed our lives.”
“I think ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ marked a before and after for me. In terms of creative freedom, possibilities and everything else, I’m where I am today because of that film. But none of it would have been possible without the faith of my immediate family, Bertha and Guillermo.”
Said DP Navarro: “Guillermo and I share the belief that cinematic language is storytelling through images that convey emotion and narrative. ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ is the ultimate expression of that. The camera is constantly searching, discovering and communicating.”
“It was also an incredibly difficult shoot. We had a limited budget, had to find unconventional solutions and took risks that could easily have failed. But we gambled and we won. Without a doubt, it’s my best film, and I hold that experience close to my heart. I hope new generations will continue to discover and appreciate it. And now, 20 years later, it returns. Olé!”
Producer Navarro, who also backed Del Toro’s career-launching feature debut “Cronos” and his much-lauded “The Devil’s Backbone,” said: “When he gave me the screenplay for ‘Cronos,’ I was absolutely fascinated. Talent shines, and you have to know how to recognize that light. That’s what I saw in Guillermo.”
“It’s been an incredible privilege to have made those three great films with Guillermo. I’ve produced many films throughout my life, but those three hold a much deeper significance for me. They changed my life.”
Baquero concurred: “’Pan’s Labyrinth’ undoubtedly opened doors for me, both into the genre and in my career. We’ve talked this afternoon about how much the film changed our lives, professionally and personally. For me, acting went from being a hobby – I had worked before ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ – to becoming my profession. Without that film, I might not be here today. It unquestionably marked a turning point in my career.”
Reflecting on its impact on young audiences. Del Toro noted: “There’s an urgency and a fragility and ferocity that coexist in ‘Pan’s Labyrinth.’ And somehow, I think it’s an urgent moment to speak, for the film to speak to a new audience.”
Local politics also crept into the conference, with a journalist asking him what he would say to the young people protesting in his hometown of Guadalajara over its current issues of contaminated water, repression and the alleged kidnapping of protesters on Oct. 11.
He responded:“This morning at my masterclass, I gave young people the floor to speak about these issues. It’s terrifying that something so fundamental should have to be fought for instead of being resolved through basic humanity and responsible leadership.”
“I said it clearly: “Their voices must be heard, and I stand with them 100%. It’s unacceptable that this remains unresolved or that anyone would try to silence them. Speaking out, protesting, and demanding a solution are fundamental rights – anytime, anywhere.”
The Morelia Film Festival began on Oct. 16 and wraps Oct. 25.
