Portuguese coproduction awarded in Venice by independent criticism

O jury of the award Bisato d’Oro, in the announcement of the decision, recalled that “women and social structures that shape their lives have always been central in Rubaiyat Hossain’s cinema”, adding that in “The Hard Bride”, the filmmaker “takes this concern to an even more surreal level”: “The body becomes the center of the film. And at some point that same body becomes the source of resistance.”.

“The Hard Bride” has photography direction of filmmaker Leonor Teles, already awarded in Cannes, participation of Portuguese technical team and financial support from the Cinema Institute and Audiovisual.

According to Portuguese producer and distributor Midas Filmes, in a statement released today, “The Hard Bride” was “punished as one of the most original films of this year’s Show”, in Venice, having been “presented in several sessions always exhausted with great success”, and with “the work of Leonor Teles, as director of photography”, to be repeatedly highlighted by the critics as “the most important of several contributions”.

This production unites Portugal and Bangladesh, the home country of the director, with France, Germany and Norway.

Selected for the competitive section “Orizonti” (“Horizontes”), dedicated to new trends in cinema, “The Hard Bride” is presented as a film “of great formal exuberance and jubilatory tone”, which “portraits a young woman in the preparation process of her marriage”, says Midas Filmes, who co-produced it.

After Venice, “The Hard Bride” will be presented at festivals in Toronto, London, Tokyo and Vienna, among other events.

The Portuguese premiere is scheduled for the spring of 2027.

Also according to Midas Filmes, Rubaiyat Hossain's next film will be shot in Portugal.

The 83rd Venice Film Festival, in Italy, began last day 02 with the debut of Danny Boyle's "Ink", about the creation of Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid The Sun.

Films such as “It will happen tonight”, by Nanni Moretti, “Bucking Fastard”, by Werner Herzog, “A Bit of Light”, by Ali Asgari, described as “painful film about opponents of the Iranian regime”, and the documentary “Naza”, by the Israelis Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, presented as a denunciation of “Israel methods of deliberate extermination of Palestinian civilians in Gaza”, have been highlighted in their programming.

At the premiere in Venice on Thursday, “Naza” (“collateral damage” in military slang) had a 25-minute ovation from the present public, as international news agencies reported.

The festival’s schedule, which ends on Saturday with the announcement of the winners, also included the exhibition of the film “Udju Azul di Yonta” (“The Blue Eyes of Yonta”), by the Guinean director Flora Gomes, in the Classics section, in a version restored by the Portuguese Cinemateca.

In the parallel events, director Pedro Costa received, at the opening weekend, the Italian film award Robert Bresson, awarded by Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo, sponsored by the Holy See.