(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Sonita
Director and screenplay: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami
18 year old Sonita Alizadeh is on a stage in California. With deer eyes and dazzling white teeth, the rapper whispers the beginning of the hip hop song "Brides for Sale". The words are foreign to the American audience, but conveyed with a glowing intensity that elicits response. And Sonita's story is truly adventurous. During the three years Sonita was the protagonist of Iranian Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami's documentary, she transformed with the director's help from paperless Afghan refugee who washed toilets in Iran, to hip-hop phenomenon and activist in the United States.
Favorite Adventure. Directors who document societal problems cannot help but be confronted with their own role in the field. Should they be a passive observer in the hope that someone in the audience addresses the fight against injustice – or should they be an active driver for positive change? IN The others (2012), Margreth Olin chose to retain the observer role and not to much help the deported young asylum seekers, although she later noted that it was a difficult decision. In Helena Trestikovas Marcela (2006), on the other hand, the director deliberately crosses the boundary from observer to supporter at crucial moments in Marcela's life.
The dramaturgy of Sonita is confusingly similar to one of Hollywood's favorite adventures. With the help of the magic of the good fairy, the oppressed Cinderella wins the entrance to the right arena, and gets his greatest wish fulfilled. But Sonita is also an enlightening portrait of a victory over women's oppressive traditions. Unlike Cinderella, there is no marriage Sonita wants. The 15-year-old is under pressure from the Afghan family to get married for a sum of $ 9000, so the brother can afford to buy his own bride. The scenario is incompatible with the dream of reporting on social injustice.
Can we accept that talent and charisma increase the chance of a freer life, as they constitute ingredients in the hyper-commercial adventure of it deserves victory against all odds?
Good luck with the taste. Sonita's story is told in a laconic interaction between the teenage girl and director Ghaem Maghami, who appears several times in front of the camera. The exchanges between the two female artists are characterized by subtle power struggles, such as when Sonita is interviewed in the bedroom about future plans and love. Sonita claims that she has never been in love, and asks director Ghaem Maghami the same question, and insists on filming her. "Do you know how to use a camera, then?" asks Ghaem Maghami. Sonita grabs the camera with an indulgent smile and points the lens at the director. Curls with bright red hair protrude from Ghaem Maghami's headgear, and she gives measured instructions on focus and zoom. Sonita begs teasingly to get the camera as a gift so she can make her own music video. The director dryly points out that it takes more than a few basic camera skills to make music video.
During the three years, Sonita's artist career gained momentum. After the studio recording of an anti-war song, the grandmother comes to visit to take Sonita home to Afghanistan. Sonita suggests that the director lend her money so she can avoid forced marriage, but the film technicians express skepticism about such interference. Ghaem Maghami still decides to bribe Sonita's family with $ 2000 to get a six-month postponement of the wedding. In a short time, the film team produces a music video that provides Sonita with a full scholarship to the Wasatch Academy in Utah. Ghaem Maghami accompanies the grateful Sonita to Afghanistan, where she obtains a birth certificate as well as a passport and visa to the United States.
In a heartbreaking scene, Sonita says goodbye to her little niece Fadia, who cries when she hears that her aunt is gone for a long time. Probably the niece is also in danger of being sold. The question is whether Fadia manages to attract her own good fairy. Can we accept that talent and charisma increase the chance of a freer life, because they constitute ingredients in the hyper-commercial adventure of it deserves victory against all odds?
Once in Utah, Sonita can hardly believe her own happiness. Everything she dreamed of is fulfilled with the help of the good fairy Ghaem Maghami. But the privileged artist does not get peace from the thought of the female relatives she left behind to forced marriage and domestic violence.
Controversial win-win situation. The film's strength lies in the everyday closeness to Sonita's world. It is astonishing how many spheres Ghaem Maghami has managed to get close to – spheres that in a nuanced way illuminate the family and community structures Sonita is subject to. It is not evil that drives Sonita's relatives to want to marry her off, but tradition. The dominant male characters are absent from the film, with a few exceptions: When Sonita is let into the armed and machine-gun-guarded passport office in Kabul, she is assigned the long-awaited passport by a uniformed officer, who exclaims "Have a good trip!" with a smile for camera.
The general public prefers inspiring stories where the main character against all odds fights for the goal with the help of courage, talent and indomitability. Does it jeopardize the credibility of a documentary when the director intervenes to achieve a desired (and more salable) result? So far, Ghaem Maghami's first feature-length documentary has won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize and the Sundance Audience Award, as well as the Audience Award at the Dutch festival IDFA. Undoubtedly, there has been an exchange of services between filmmakers and contributors who have improved both career opportunities. It is understandable, but debatable, that an empathetic film artist uses his own resources to save a luminous and talented being from freedom. In any case, it is valuable to closely document the mechanisms that lead to the sale of young girls.
In the music video "Brides for Sale", Sonita stages her hypothetical future as a buying bride with a barcode on her forehead and bruises after the man's fists. The last stanza evokes tragic associations with niece Fadia: "I leave my doll / Do not make her cry like me / Do not sell her, she is a gift in memory of me."
Sonita will be shown on 18 and 21 February during the film festival Human Rights Human Wrongs at the Cinemateket in Oslo.
Jægtnes is a new regular film critic in Ny Tid.
hildesusan@gmail.com
