Iran (English captions) submitted this wonderful documentary about a young woman who does NOT want to be sold by her father into a marriage with an older man she hasn't met. Her dream is to be a rapper!(?) Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, this unexpectedly involving story brings us a lovely immigrant who left Afghanistan with her sister and now lives in Iran. She wisely blends traditional Sharia law with an attempt to join a more modern lifestyle; e.g., even though she refuses to remove her scarf lest she shame her family, she laughingly claims Michael Jackson and Rhianna as her parents.
Directed by Rokhsareh Ghaem Magham, this is the perfect combination of humor (she loves her Justin Bieber poster) and grim reality (her school chums are being married off to older married men); she knows what she wants and is determined to figure out how to get it.
We watch:
- Rap rehearsals with a male friend (thank goodness for those captions);
- Worried chats with her sister about being evicted because the rent is overdue;
- A friendly visit from her mom which becomes something else;
- Conversations with a social worker who wants to help but can't alienate the government;
- Her risky trip to Kabul to get her birth certificate and then, she HOPES, a passport.
I recommend this one.
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