Nikah

Dilber is 27, and her mother wants to quickly find a husband for her — especially now that her younger sister Rena is settling into newly married life. But it’s 2017, a time when Uyghur people are being arrested without people knowing why. And one of those detained is Rena’s husband, questioned and held by the local district committee.

Subtle and carefully observed, Nikah is a powerful mid-length feature that captures the uncertainty of a young woman at a personal crossroads, while an immense tragedy of internment unfolds. As tensions rise and fears mount, Dilber’s regular FaceTime chats with a friend in Paris convince her that her best hope lies in marrying a young Uyghur man in France. But will that be enough?

“Extraordinary. Filmed in France with a cast and crew of exiled Uyghurs, Nikah is a glimpse into the shattering of a culture, and shows us the beauty of Uyghur communal life. It is astonishing in its restraint, in the way it remains true to a ground level view of what it looked and felt like to be on the verge of internment. Nikah is a portrait of the impossible becoming reality.” — The China Project

“Mukaddas Mijit, a Uyghur artist and ethnomusicologist based in France, reveals a society that is silently falling apart in this intense, delicate and sometimes funny film.” —Liberation