Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears

East London Musim girl Shahanara is changing from pink hotpants into a saree, to meet her husband at the airport. She has only met him once before, when she was married in a union arranged by her Bangladeshi family. Shahanara only agreed to the marriage to try and heal old wounds with her father, who had banished her from her family for her Western ways.

Meanwhile, her devout Muslim sister Hushnara is being groomed for her own arranged marriage, something that at 19 she doesn’t feel at all ready for. This is a lively, funny and affectionate film about a British Muslim family, made all the more revealing because of the filmmaker’s long standing friendship with them. It is also a frank and absorbing view of a community from the inside.