Elaha review – sensitive drama exploring taboos in a tight-knit German-Kurdish community

“I wish we had German vaginas.” On a stolen evening at a nightclub, away from the gaze of their families, Elaha (Bayan Layla) and her friends finally feel free enough to say the unsayable. The girls may have been born and raised in Germany, but they are part of a tight-knit German-Kurdish community that has certain expectations about how a young woman should behave. Sex before marriage, for example, is forbidden. Elaha’s mother (Derya Durmaz) claims that she would rather her daughter was dead than deflowered. Which is a problem for Elaha, who is covertly and urgently researching the options for surgical hymen reconstruction in advance of her marriage to a handsome, charming but deeply conservative Kurdish man.

The taboos around sex are deeply entrenched. While Elaha knows that her best friend is sexually active, she would never dream of broaching the subject outright. She finds a confidante elsewhere, in her serene and heavily pregnant teacher (Hadnet Tesfai), who suggests that questions of “honour” are less important than the fundamental issue: “Are you the woman you want to be?”

Films that explore themes of women’s bodily autonomy are not uncommon – practically every other horror movie right now seems to have a macabre preoccupation with the female reproductive system. But this accomplished debut feature from Armenian-born director Milena Aboyan stands out, exploring the theme, and the knotty complexity of Elaha’s cultural identity, with sensitivity, brisk energy and a sure directorial hand. In the title role, the magnetic, vivacious Layla is a real discovery, deftly balancing Elaha’s love for her family and her Kurdish pride against the chafing restrictions placed on her by everything and everyone she holds dear.

• In UK and Irish cinemas now