The Rain Bride

• Hussein Hassan Ali
• 99 min
• Iraq, Germany
• 2022
• Fiction

Kurdish film star delivers drama with dance, song, and theater – for women’s liberation and against the repetitive circles of war.

Reber, a former deminer, runs a traditional dance group together with his wife Lori in Duhok. When the war against ISIS escalates, he is forced to join the Peshmerga troops again. As unclear news come from the front, the free and independent Lori is faced with society’s and her parents-in-law’s demands on how a single woman should live. Hussein Hassan is one of the most profiled actors and directors from the Kurdish area of Iraq. In his fourth film, he puts the spotlight on a society that has become tired of old-fashioned conventions and destructive wars while offering a dramatic turning point that may be one of the festival’s most surprising. The film had its world premiere at Duhok in December and is produced with support from the Göteborg Film Fund.

- Freddy Olsson

• Drama
• Krig
• Feminism
• Dans
• Motstånd