Noces (A Wedding)

PLEASE NOTE: This film will be screened with DUTCH subtitles.

Teenager Zahira enjoys herself with friends, goes out clubbing and has a boyfriend, just like most Wallonian girls of her age. She has a good relationship with her Pakistani parents until they decide to marry her off to an unknown man. An unwanted pregnancy forces her to make a difficult decision.

Belgian-Pakistani Zahira is only eighteen years old and already faces a difficult dilemma: in the ‘free’ Western world where she grew up, it is fully accepted that a woman determines her own fate, but her family has entirely different ideas on that. Her parents want to marry her off to a Pakistani man, judging it sufficiently progressive to allow her to choose from three candidates she can become acquainted with on Skype.

However, Zahira already has a boyfriend and, what’s more, turns out to be pregnant from him. Her brother Amir is her biggest ally and serves as a mediator between Zahira and her tormented father. But Amir, too, thinks she should comply with her parents’ wishes. Her older sister Hina, who is also married to a designated partner, urges her to marry the selected candidate. Failure to do so will lead to all family ties being permanently cut.

Torn between the desire of self-determination and the love for her family, Zahira faces a life-changing choice. Yet how is she supposed to make that choice when she can hardly oversee its consequences?

Text: Annika Wubbolt