Kuma review

Family values are examined in this arranged-marriage drama

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Teenage bride Ayse (Begum Akkaya) arrives in suburban Vienna from rural Turkey to take her place in her husband’s Kurdish-Austrian family.

Watched by ailing yet still formidable mother of six Fatma (Nihal G. Koldas), the newcomer is expected to sire the next generation and busy herself with endless domestic tasks, regardless of her own happiness.

Writer/director Umut Dag piles misfortune upon his characters, while trapping them in claustrophobic interior settings.

A confident, vigorously acted debut, unsparing in its scrutiny of oppressive ‘family values’.