Sonita (OmeU)
“Like other girls I’m caged and confined, kept like a sheep on which you would dine,” raps 15-year-old Sonita from Herat, an unaccompanied refugee kid from Afghanistan, living in Tehran. Sonita’s story is the most modern of fairytales. Over three years filming in Iran and Afghanistan, we witness her being snatched from the jaws of war, destitution and a family, trying force her into marriage, but in the end she is delivered into the arms of her own American dream. Except, instead of a prince, Sonita longs for a recording contract; and instead of a scary stepmother, she faces forced marriage and Sharia law’s restrictions on female artists.
But what makes a human rights documentary a success? And does a happy ending make us less likely to take action? In SONITA, director Maghami makes these questions part of the film itself. She records her own struggle to gain Sonita’s trust, and then personally intervenes to save her from a wedding she doesn’t want. (India Bourke)
- Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami
- Arastoo Givi
- Behrouz Badrouj
- Ali Mohammad Ghasemi
- Mohammad Haddadi
- Torben Bernard
- Parviz Arefi
- Ala Mohseni
- Benjamin Benoit
- Rune Schweitzer
- Moritz Denis
- Sonita Alidazeh
Cat&Docs
