ELAHA Trailer | RIGA IFF 2023

ELAHA Directed by: Milena Aboyan DE, 2023 Kurdish brides are expected to be perfect, obedient and virgins. Elaha is a young German Kurdish woman who is set to become the wife of her employer’s brother, Naseem, in a few weeks’ time. She realises that she does not conform to traditional beliefs as she has already had sex. Seeking surgical solutions, trying to live a full life and adapt to her family’s views at the same time, she is increasingly at odds with her body. By subtly not making enemies of those closest to her or trying to make the protagonist’s emancipation a black and white struggle for justice, director Milena Aboyan colours in the subtleties of the characters and culture. Actress Bayan Layla’s portrayal of the protagonist asserting autonomy over her body, then questioning it and trying to look at the situation in a truly critical (and sometimes comic) way is disarming. The questions tackled in this film, which has been getting attention on the festival circuit, doesn’t distract from how it addresses the key questions, namely what is a woman’s value before and after any sexual experience, and what — or who — determines that value?