Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears

UK 2006 / 62min.
Director Simon Chambers

Two Bangladeshi girls born and raised in London agree to allow their parents to choose their husbands for them.

The elder, Sahanara, quick-witted, coarse-mannered and the rebel of the family, banished from the family in her teens for being "too Western", has to swap her pink hot pants for a sari as she goes off to the airport to meet her new Bangladeshi husband.

The younger, Hushnara is more submissive, devout and accepting of her father’s match with stoic dutifulness.

Simon Chambers is an old friend of the family and the family is welcoming of his decision to film the family. The film is intimate, surprisingly frank and revealing of British Muslim life not normally seen. The family regularly address him directly or ask his opinion during a domestic dispute, which he then gives in the voice-over.

Simon starts filming just before Sahanara’s bridegroom arrives in Great Britain. At that point, everything still seems all right. But when Simon drops by a few months later, the household is in an upheaval. Sahanara has left her husband; found a job and a new boyfriend while Hushnara has doubts about her pending nuptials. Eventually, Chambers accompanies the family to Bangladesh for Hushnara’s wedding, and to look for Sahanara, who has disappeared completely.

Feeling more like an independent dramatic feature film than a documentary, it is beguiling and captivating. It is a timely antidote to the current media preoccupation with Islamic religious fundamentalism, terrorism or "how badly they treat their women".

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