Hot Bread Film Difficulty Ranking: 2
Why Watch Hot Bread?
- Experience rural Uzbekistan
- To see a spoiled kid get sent to the country
- For family sisterhood
From: Uzbekistan, Asia Watch: FilmFreeway, IMDb Next: Daughter in Law, Wallay, Yara
Flashbacks Building Character
Hot Bread starts with a woman leaving her job at the hospital to go see her family. She’s incredibly excited and all the staff appear happy for her. As she leaves, the movie jumps back to a younger version of the same woman on a bus with her grandma. Her grandma is taking her young teenage self to live in the country against her will, away from her mother. This part of Zulfiya’s life becomes the main part of the film’s narrative.
As well as the opening, which is a flash forward, Hot Bread also has a flash back from the main narrative. Both scenes help to provide context for Zulfiya’s character. In the flash forward, she’s looking forward to seeing her mother again, and in the flash back she’s recalling a happy memory of life with her mother. These out-of-present scenes both generate sympathy for Zulfiya’s being forced to live without her mother..
Sympathy For a Spoiled Child
Initially, the Zulfiya’s tantrums and reluctance to help her family in the country where she’s been sent makes her appear like a spoiled child. She even lies about her family to make her seem special to her school friends (that she’s been to America, and her father works internationally). However, as we spend more time with her, we start to sympathize with her. After all, she’s been sent to live in the country away from the comforts she’s used to in the city, she’s beaten by her grandma, and forbidden from calling her mum. Plus, we find out that her family lies just as much as she does and ultimately for the same reasons: to make themselves feel better about themselves and their family. It’s all a facade to hide their loneliness.
Sisterhood
Zulfiya’s sister-in-law is the only person that really cares for her. She protects her from the frustration of her grandma, taking over chores that her grandma forces her to do, and sympathizes with her young age. It feels like she wants to give Zulfiya an opportunity that she didn’t have – a life that isn’t confined to the chores of the countryside. But she also sympathizes with Zulfiya, because she, like herself, is consumed by the families lies. Her husband disappeared and left her with her mother in law, just as Zulfiya’s mother disappeared and left her in the country too. She’s had to hide his disappearance and pretend to be waiting on him to maintain their happy family appearance. She might feel that Zulfiya is fated to a life in the country, therefore tries to make it easier for Zulfiya to slowly accept.
What to Watch Next
If you like movies about spoiled kids being sent to live in the country, you should watch Wallay from Burkina Faso. It features a spoiled Parisian kid being sent to live with his family in Burkina Faso.
Or if you want to watch more films about women living alone in the country, check out Daughter in Law from the deserts of Turkmenistan and Yara from a remote valley in Lebanon.
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