So German!

Mai 2nd, 2024 at 8.15 PM at Cinémathèque québécoise:

ELAHA

Germany | 2023 | 110 mins
Director: Milena Aboyan
With: Bayan Layla, Armin Wahedi, Derya Dilber, Derya Durmaz, Cansu Leyan, Beritan Balci, Slavko Popadić, Nazmi Kırık, Réber Ibrahim, Homa Faghiri, Hadnet Tesfai

22-year-old Elaha is a young Kurdish-German woman who is torn between her unconditional love for her family and her own goals in life. Elaha goes to vocational school, works part-time at a dry cleaner and is planning her wedding, while age-old traditions collide with modern life. Her to-do list for the upcoming wedding includes finding a way to fake her virginity, if necessary through surgery. Strongly connected to her tight-knot Kurdish community, Elaha respects her family and their traditions, which is why she wants to fulfill her culture’s expectation to bleed on her wedding night despite having premarital sex. The young woman explores her options, but secrets are hard to keep in her community and Elaha begins to question the rules: why and for whom does she actually have to be a virgin?

Director and screenwriter Milena Aboyan brings nuance and respect for Kurdish customs to her debut feature. With beautiful, sometimes haunting images, Elaha is an intimate look at a young woman searching for her inner truth in a world unwilling to accept her for who she is.