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Maryam (Sofia Jane) appears to lead a modern existence; she owns a successful art gallery and resides in a spacious, opulent apartment. She practically has almost any kind of freedom except choosing her own mate. In a country that strictly follows Sharia law, she still needs the approval of her father, her legal guardian (“wali”), to get married. It doesn’t seem to matter that Maryam is already 50 years old, she will receive plenty of mansplaining on her protracted quest to have her wedding approved. The fact that she comes from an aristocratic family and that her father is none other than the timber tycoon Tengku Dol further burdens her with the expectation that she will marry someone of equal standing, preferably a royalty and certainly not a much younger black man from Sierra Leone.

Maryam is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam

Although we are not given the...