Synopsis
Sixteen year-old Nisha lives a double life. At home with her family she is the perfect Pakistani daughter, but when out with her friends, she is a normal Norwegian teenager. When her father catches her in bed with her boyfriend, Nisha's two worlds brutally collide. To set an example, Nisha's parents decide to kidnap her and place her with relatives in Pakistan. Here, in a country she has never been to before, Nisha is forced to adapt to her parents' culture.
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Cast
- Maria MozhdahNisha
- Adil HussainMirza
- Ekavali KhannaMother
- Rohit SarafAmir
- Ali ArfanAsif
- Sheeba ChaddhaAunt
- Lalit ParimooUncle
- Jannat Zubair RahmaniSalima
- Isak Lie HarrDaniel
- Nokokure DahlEmily
Recommendations
- 100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Mozhdah empathetically charts Nisha’s despairing acquiescence and fitful rebellions, but it’s Adil Hussain’s work making her father not entirely unsympathetic that really stands out. - 80
Variety
"People” represents a big step up from Haq’s more modestly scaled debut, but it’s a move she handles with assurance and aplomb. She develops the father-daughter relationship visually as well as verbally, showing the action from both their perspectives. - 80
The New York Times
In a resolute acknowledgment of the oppression that too many young women face at home, the film portrays the family structure as the enforcing unit of feminine docility. Here, love is another form of bondage. - 75
The Film Stage
It’s about hypocrisy, mistrust, and the struggle felt by second-generation immigrants everywhere. And Haq pulls no punches in depicting just how devastatingly bad things can get when a child’s mind is torn between a community built on archaic ideals and another entrenched in a present where such stringent rules prove impossible to uphold. - 70
Screen Daily
No matter how melodramatic the story becomes, and how much the emotions boil, What Will People Say at least tries to understand both sides of this cultural and generational divide. - 70
Village Voice
Despite the subject matter, Haq is most often quite tender in her storytelling. - 63
Slant Magazine
The film flirts with miserablism, but it counterbalances the direness of its main character's situation with moments of levity. - 58
The A.V. Club
he performances are strong, and the situation itself presumably carries a harrowing veracity, but an ordeal is about all the movie offers. Shaking your head over and over again is the only suitable reaction.
