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 inspiring pursuit of a law degree at the University of British Columbia.
Interwoven with Rumana’s story are the journeys of three professional women in Dhaka, whose relationships mirror aspects of Rumana’s own abusive marriage. Sharmin is a survivor and radio DJ who is resisting pressure to remarry after divorce. Naima is a young HR manager who is boldly setting the terms for her marriage. While Zasmin, an underemployed schoolteacher, lives in constant fear of her volatile husband.
Exposing the ways in which tradition, family pressure and social stigma control women’s lives, Untying the Knot lays bare the sacrifices women are forced to make in the name of marital expectation. With remarkable access to the subjects’ lives, the film is an intimate portrait of the courageous women who are surviving, and fighting to change, the social codes that bind them.
