The Wedding Ring (Zin’naariyâ!) 2016

Tiyaa, a student and member of a prestigious aristocratic family, is back home to the Sultanate of Damagaram, in Niger, for the winter holidays. She is expecting the young man she met while studying in France, also from an important family not far from Damagaram, to make a formal proposal of marriage, but the handsome suitor is slow to come… This vibrant and beautiful female-led story touches upon themes of love, longing, sensuality, marriage and community. The Wedding Ring, Rahmatou Keïta's second feature, pays homage to the fading customs of Sahelian people in Niger, documenting their ways of life and cultural traditions in order to preserve their memory for generations to come.

Introduction from the TANO network
Although one of the founding fathers of African cinema, the prolific animator Moustapha Alassane, was from Niger, this landlocked West African country has not boasted a flourishing film industry. Enter the elegant and articulate Rahmatou Keïta, who set her stunning female-focused coming-of-age feature The Wedding Ring in a rural Sahelian village and based the rituals and traditions in the film on her own aristocratic heritage. The Wedding Ring has been screened internationally to high acclaim, and was the first film to be submitted by Niger in the Foreign Language Oscar category. Keïta is particularly proud of the film’s transnationally African provenance, as it was funded entirely by African sources.

This film will be available to view here for 48 hours from the listed date. It is free to watch but donations are welcomed.