Co-Husband (Sahayek Shreeman)

Co-husband is a portrait of the practice of fraternal polyandry in the communities of the indigenous Humlo people in the Humla district of Nepal. Told from the perspective of the wives and husbands as well as the members of the community who reject this model, the film explores the economic, cultural and emotional dimensions of this custom and the social consequences for those who don’t practice it. 

 This family structure is closely related to the caravan trade, when men were absent for long periods of time– traveling for up to eight months at a time to transport salt from Tibet and rice from the Achham region. On the one hand, this limited their time together at home, and on the other, from an economic perspective, it allowed them to share resources, reduce land division and have a larger support system, which enabled them to prosper economically. However, with the continuing decline in this form of work and the rise in unemployment, everyday life has changed and individual needs have shifted, which raises the question of whether polyandry will continue to be practiced. 

Nepalese filmmaker Ganesh Panday’s documentary invites a dialogue about how different a household and a family can look, what economic considerations go into such a structure, how to define a ‘successful’ household and what role love plays in marriage.