Is the incident involving the college student shown graphically on screen?

No. The film focuses on what Rehana witnesses afterward—a distressed student leaving a professor's office—and the psychological, professional, and ethical fallout that follows. The tension comes from the cover-up, the arguments, and Rehana's refusal to drop the accusation, rather than graphic on-screen violence.

Why is Common Sense Media's age rating 13+ if it's an adult drama?

On a strict content checklist, the movie doesn't have the gore, nudity, or constant profanity that triggers an R-rating equivalent. However, the subject matter—institutional misconduct, intense emotional stress, and a mother taking her frustration out at home—is very much aimed at adults and mature high schoolers.

Will a teenager actually stay awake through this, or is it slow festival homework?

Despite being a subtitled Cannes selection, it moves with the nervous energy of a thriller. The camera follows Rehana closely through tight hallways as her choices back her into tighter and tighter corners. A teen who only wants fast action will bounce off it, but a teen who likes tense dramas will find plenty to chew on.

What language is the movie in, and where is it streaming?

The film is in Bengali with English subtitles, as it is set in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is available to rent or purchase digitally on Amazon Video.

Rehana Maryam Noor – WISE Score & Parent Review | Screenwise

Rehana Maryam Noor

Name: Screenwise
Author: Screenwise

movie2021

74%

WISE Score

100

Avg. Tomatometer

A rigid, exhausted medical college professor goes to war with her own institution after witnessing a distressed student leave a colleague's office.

7/10

100%

→

Rehana Maryam Noor

movie

NR, 2021

74%

WISE Score

100

Avg. Tomatometer

A rigid, exhausted medical college professor goes to war with her own institution after witnessing a distressed student leave a colleague's office.

100%

Jump to

Also rated on

7/10

100%

View →

Where to Watch

Loading streaming options...

Where-to-watch data byJustWatch

Screenwise Verdict

Rehana Maryam Noor is a tense, claustrophobic character study that plays like a thriller set entirely inside the hallways and offices of a medical college. Following an assistant professor who witnesses an unexpected incident involving a female student, the film tracks what happens when a deeply flawed, stubborn woman refuses to let institutional silence win.

Critics loved it—it holds a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 84 on Metacritic—because lead actress Azmeri Haque Badhon gives a fearless, prickly performance. This is obviously not family movie night material for elementary or middle schoolers. For parents and older high schoolers who appreciate international cinema (like the films of Asghar Farhadi) and want a story that doesn't spoon-feed easy lessons about right and wrong, it is a sharp, memorable watch.

Age Fit

This is an adult art-house drama that fits thoughtful teens (14+) and parents. Younger kids have zero reason to watch a subtitled movie about medical college faculty politics, and the serious themes around student mistreatment require teenage maturity.

WISE Breakdown

Wholesome

A heavy, uncompromising adult drama by director Abdullah Mohammad Saad. It examines moral rigidity and institutional silence after an incident at a medical college, featuring a protagonist who is fiercely principled but often abrasive and emotionally strained.

Imaginative

Strikingly original as the first Bangladeshi film selected for Cannes (Un Certain Regard). It uses claustrophobic framing and a distinct blue-green color palette to create the feel of a psychological thriller within mundane college hallways.

Safe

Deals directly with the aftermath of an incident involving a female student at a medical college, alongside heavy emotional distress, institutional pressure, and tense domestic arguments. No graphic gore or explicit sex, but the thematic weight is firmly for teens and adults (CSM rates it 13+).

Enriching

Critically acclaimed (100% on Rotten Tomatoes, 84 on Metacritic) for its refusal to offer easy moral answers. It is a sharp, demanding character study about what happens when someone refuses to let an injustice slide, even as their own flaws complicate the fight.

Parent Info

✓

Why It Might Be Great

Moral complexity without a halo: Rehana isn't a warm, inspirational movie hero. She's stubborn, harsh with her students and young daughter, and completely uncompromising, which makes her refusal to stay quiet about an campus incident much more interesting to discuss with older teens.
World-class filmmaking: Holds a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 84 on Metacritic, making history at the Cannes Film Festival as the first official selection from Bangladesh.
Thriller tension in everyday spaces: The movie generates real suspense out of locked office doors, faculty meetings, and hallway confrontations without relying on action tropes.

⚠

What to Watch For

Heavy institutional themes: The plot revolves around an incident involving a female student and a male professor, and the suffocating pressure placed on women to keep quiet for the sake of reputation.
Harsh domestic moments: Rehana is under immense pressure as a single mother, and her strict, sometimes volatile reactions toward her six-year-old daughter can be uncomfortable to watch.
Claustrophobic pacing: This is a serious, subtitled festival drama shot in tight frames. Younger kids will be bored within five minutes, and even teens need to be in the mood for a slow-burn ethical pressure cooker.

Conversation Starters

"Can someone be doing the right thing in a situation while still going about it in a way that hurts the people around them?"
"Why do you think everyone at the college was so quick to tell Rehana to drop the issue?"
"How much pressure was Rehana carrying at home compared to what she was dealing with at work?"

Deep Dive

A whistleblower who refuses to be likable

Most movies about someone standing up to a corrupt institution follow a familiar playbook: the hero is warm, patient, and noble, making it easy for the audience to root for them. Rehana Maryam Noor throws that script out the window in the first ten minutes. Rehana, a 37-year-old assistant professor and single mother, kicks a student out of an exam for cheating and refuses to budge an inch. She is exhausted, severe, and holds everyone—her students, her family, her young daughter, and herself—to an impossible standard.

When she sees a female student crying after leaving a senior professor's office, that same rigid uncompromising nature locks onto seeking justice, even when the student herself begs her to let it go.

How it lands for older teens

Common Sense Media pegs the floor at 13, which tracks in terms of explicit content—there is no graphic violence or nudity on screen. In practice, the movie makes the most sense for 15- to 18-year-olds who are ready to talk about how real-world institutions protect themselves, and why speaking up is rarely as clean or triumphant as Hollywood makes it look.

If you watch it with a high schooler, the richest territory is how the movie connects Rehana's fight at the college with her role as a mother. She is so consumed by protecting her daughter and fighting the patriarchy around her that she sometimes becomes an overwhelming force at home herself.

What Parents Ask

Ask Anything

Get a personalized guide on any topic

Writing about Rehana Maryam Noor? Put this WISE score on your site