Documentary ‘Sonita’ raises questions about subjectivity linked to preposterous traditions

Panellists discuss at UN Human Rights Film Festival how efforts
like Sonita could help bring out reality about migrants

“It might be true that the practice of placing a price tag on girls during marriage ceremonies isn’t widespread in Pakistan, but it would also be wrong to refute it completely because it does happen in some northern parts of the country because after all we do share the same culture. It would be best if we stop lying to each other and help in uprooting such traditions.”

This observation, along with the piece of advice, came from an award-winning Afghan photojournalist, Massoud Hosseini, who addressed the audience, right after watching a documentary titled ‘Sonita’ about an Afghan rapper who speaks against violence via art.

His words led some to be embarrassed as others just shook their heads in disbelief at the two-day UN Human Rights Film Festival held at the Centre for Excellence in Journalism at the IBA on Tuesday.

Directed by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, Sonita follows the life of Sonita, a girl who escaped to Iran from Herat after the brutal regime of Taliban took over Afghanistan. Supported by an NGO which looks after migrants, Sonita does odds jobs there and learns to read and write, all the while yearning to become a famous rapper like Yas or Eminem.

Rapping in a language familiar to all her friends, Sonita spoke about violence against women, war and its aftermath as well as the idea of being free. Her video ‘Brides of Sale’ went viral in 2014 and led to an award, which further helped her in being chosen for a scholarship program in Utah.

While the documentary was moving, it was to be noted that unlike other documentary films, filmmaker Rokhsareh got involved with the subject, Sonita, when Sonita innocently asked to “buy her” because she was “on sale” after all. When Sonita’s mother arrived in Iran to fetch her to be married at a price tag for $9,000, it was Rokhsareh who gave $2,000 to her mother to buy time for six months during which Brides of Sale got viral, and perhaps this change of plot is what made the film very atypical.

The panelists — Dr Markus Heidingsfelder, Hosseini, Ann-Claire Adet, a filmmaker and coordinator for FIFDH, and Junaid Khan, programme coordinator for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Pakistan — discussed the film as well as how such efforts could help in bringing out reality about migrants.

Hosseini opined that although it was great to see Sonita prosper, the fact that a filmmaker had to intervene couldn’t be ignored. “Sonita would have had a very different future had the filmmaker not fend off her family from getting her married. She changed the truth but this isn’t the reality; it got altered.”

He stressed that Sonita’s real strength would have been proven if she had landed in Herat with her family to go against all odds.

Ann-Claire however said that the point where Sonita was able to convince Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami also showed that she did stand up for herself to choose a better life and that she was smart enough to use the opportunity at hand. Plus there was the risk of taking her to Herat and Kabul for passport as well as her luck because she might not have gone viral in the first place as well.

“When I was in Iran, we too had a revolutionary approach to everything and we were determined to change the course of things, but once we came to Afghanistan, we realised that the conditions were far different from what we had in our minds. So in this regard, had Sonita returned to Afghanistan, her tale would have been more unique,” Hosseini pointed out because he felt strongly about the outcome.

Dr Markus Heidingsfelder agreed with Hosseni in accordance with the cinematic viewpoint and referred to Sharmeen-Obaid Chinoy’s ‘A Girl in The River’ in which she herself appeared in a scene while grilling the father who was behind bars as to how problematic it was for the filmmaker to become a part of the set, thus losing objectivity.

Speaking about the refugee crisis, Khan said the film did put across scenes which showed how difficult it was to live as a migrant because you can’t go home and you aren’t welcomed in the new place either. “Usually, the popular narrative is different from the actual truth. This year 600,000 Afghans have gone back to their land, and it’s not easy for them either, because their third generation has been born and raised in Pakistan, and now they would have to go back and call it home too.”