Join ChinaFile for a film screening of Nikah followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.

Set in China’s Uyghur region in 2017, and spanning the months between two weddings, Nikah follows Dilber, a young woman approaching a crossroads amid the Chinese government’s surveilling and detaining of members of her community. As even her most personal decisions become suddenly political, Dilber must struggle with the tension between tradition and modernity, as her world closes in around her.

Following the screening, co-directors Mukaddas Mijit and Bastien Ehouzan will be in discussion with ChinaFile Senior Editor for Investigations Jessica Batke.

“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

2024 / 56 minutes / Uyghur and French with English subtitles

Mukaddas Mijit is an ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, dancer, and choreographer, born in Urumchi in the Uyghur region. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, working on Uyghur artistic reaction in the diaspora after the human rights crisis in the Uyghur region. Nikah is her first medium-length film.

Bastien Ehouzan is co-founder of KIDAM, a film production company based in Bordeaux and Paris, founded in 2010. He has partnered with the production company L’Endroit since 2018. Nikah is his first medium-length film.                                                                                                                                                                         

Jessica Batke is ChinaFile’s Senior Editor for Investigations. She researches China’s domestic political and social affairs, and served as the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research Analyst for nearly eight years prior to joining ChinaFile in 2017.