SYNOPSIS

The story follows the turbulent life of Dipa, a young divorced woman whose refusal to suffer silently makes her a misfit in a rural town in 90s Bangladesh. She is raised by weak and ineffectual parents in a peculiar family dynamic dominated by her maternal uncle and aunt. Under their authority, Dipa is married off to a widower in England over a trunk-call wedding ceremony to protect her from the dangers of teenage passions. Dipa suffers marital rape, refuses to settle and escapes. Seven years later, Dipa has become a transformed and confident professional, yet she still must fight the social stigma and the burden of “family honour” to live on her own terms.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

‘Barir Naam Shahana – A House Named Shahana’ is my debut fiction. It is an intimate drama in Bengali. The film, set in the 90s, follows Dipa, a 29-year-old divorced woman who lives in a small town in Bangladesh, where she imagines living her life the way she wants. It is her journey to emotional and economic independence and how she gains her freedom to choose in an otherwise socially conservative society. Dipa’s story is drawn from real-life experiences. Being a divorcée myself in ’90s Bangladesh, I experienced enormous social stigma and observed how divorced women were outcasts in their own homes and society. Yet, all my life, I have been awed by the courage of ordinary South Asian women who face infamy and injustices but still build their own paths to live as they please. I have always wanted to tell their passionate, complex, burning stories. Dipa is one such woman. She does not accept what has been decided for her by others and fights back. Her unusual and witty way of dealing with life is uplifting. Every character in the film emerges from our surroundings. We know and recognise them in our homes, families, and society. My approach to this film is to show that ordinary life is full of consequential drama, so the making does not need to embellish it. Visually I have tried to give a glimpse of the vastness of life against the continual claustrophobic presence of societal rules. The vision for the film is to create a representation of a woman beyond the paradoxical definitions of morality, venturing into stories of real women that our audience will relate to. It is not an unhappy film. Instead, it is a triumphant one.