Islamabad
Mandwa Film Club of Lok Virsa has selected Sharmeen Obaid Chenoy's Oscar winning documentary A Girl In the River : The Price of Forgiveness for screening on Saturday, September 3, at 5 p.m. Sharmeen has already won an Oscar in 2012 for Documentary Short Subject Saving Face, the dreadful account of an acid victim.
A Girl in the River revolves around eighteen years old girl Saba. She falls in love with a man, who according to her father, is below their social status (whatever that means in 2015). Saba is not willing to go by that rule and she turns down the pressure. The father and uncle ruthlessly gun her down and throw her body down the river. Miracles still do happen and Saba survives the gun shot and drowning.
The case goes before the law. The father and uncle are pretty proud of what they have done, as by attempting to kill Saba, they were able to bring back respect, dignity and honour to the family. There is no regret or sense of loss.
Violence on women as part of honour killing, in urban but mostly rural Pakistan, is national shame and disgrace. And even though law takes it turn (in due course of time), we have to go miles to change the situation. Ironically, honour killing has no place in Islam. Here one give credit and standing ovation to Sharmeen for making films on problems women and men in our society face and suffer. Women in particular are destroyed by this false moral code, and they continue to fight for social justice.
Almost all the women and most of their male companions who go through attempts of honour killing do not survive. Under such circumstances, how did A Girl In the River came into being!. According to Sharmeen, a girl victim of honour killing was hospitalized. Sharmeen became determined to make the documentary on her life. Saba in return wanted her life to be narrated to the public. They both had a common cause and that is how A Girl In the River was born. The filming took place, among other locations, in the hospital where Sharmeen was under treatment. The police, doctors, hospital staff and Saba's mother were great support in the making of the film. Filming also took place in the jail to meet the father and film his point of view. The father still believes in what he did, and given a chance, he would do it again. So much for regrets and repentance.
Turn the clock to 2016. The film has won Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject. But that is not enough. Sharmeen has been meeting the Prime Minister and Chief Minster Punjab, asking them to come out strong with the law and its execution against honour killing.
A Girl in the River is US/Pakistan co-production. The soundtrack is in English and Punjabi. The film runs for 40 minutes.
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