Dalida Kerkatlis

Rim Kerkatlis

A documentary about young girls forced into marriage.

It's a condition known as "hypertrichosis" or "Ambras Syndrome," but in the 1500s it would transform one man into a national sensation and iconic fairy-tale character. His name: Petrus Gonsalvus, more commonly known today as the hairy hero of Beauty and the Beast.

Child marriages have been an unnoticed reality in some sections of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka. This film tells the story of Fatima, a 16-year old school girl, who is set to marry a man far older than her. Not only her right to education is denied but her consent to marriage too. Until she accidentally meets her future husband, she has not even seen him. She is caught up between her hopes and the reality of her destiny.

A Suitable Girl follows three young women in India struggling to maintain their identities and follow their dreams amid intense pressure to get married. The film examines the women's complex relationship with marriage, family, and society.

Each day, men from various parts of Asia make a stop in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) where they embark on their search for a perfect match. Using verité footage and interviews, Match Made offers a glimpse into the intricate network of the buying and selling of women as brides from villages around Saigon.

Nepalese women are telling their stories arranged marriages. In the jungle of western Nepal lives Fofo, who is married off at the age of 10 to a man of 20. When Thuli becomes a widow after 10 childbirths she is mocked at by both neighbours and relatives. Savitri did not even know the name of the groom she was marrying and she was not even allowed to see him during the wedding ceremony. Nepalese law does not allow child marriage but the law does not reach girls who have never been to school and are living in areas with no roads. This film shows some of the reasons behind the 40 % guerrilla women in the Nepalese Maoist army.

Two Bangladeshi girls born and raised in London have weddings arranged for them against their will by their family. Shahanara, 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. Her sister Hushnara is the opposite of Shahanara; a devout Muslim who agrees to marry so she doesn't upset her parents.

At 14 Rabha El Haimer was an illiterate child bride, beaten, raped and then rejected. Ten years later, she is a single mother, fighting to legalise her sham marriage and secure a future for her illegitimate daughter. With unprecedented access to the Moroccan justice system, “Bastards” follows Rabha’s fight from the Casablanca slums to the high courts.