Untying the Knot

Untying the Knot

1 x 75 min.

Untying the Knot tells the powerful story of Rumana Monzur, a Bangladeshi-Canadian woman who was viciously assaulted by her husband in Bangladesh, leaving her totally blind. From the aftermath of the attack to Rumana’s present life in Vancouver, the film traces Rumana’s journey and her courageous pursuit of a challenging goal: to become a practicing lawyer in Canada.

Interwoven with Rumana’s story are the unfolding journeys of three women in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city, whose relationships mirror aspects of Rumana’s own abusive marriage. Tradition, family pressure and social stigma all play a role in controlling women’s lives in a patriarchal society. Untying the Knot lays bare the unspoken sacrifices women must make in the name of marital expectation. With remarkable access to the subjects’ lives, the film is an intimate portrait of how women are surviving, and fighting to change, the social codes that bind them. 

Directed by Zanna Shammi