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Winner of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary and World Cinema Audience Award for Documentary, Sonita follows a determined and animated Afghan teen.

Synopsis

Winner of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary, Sonita is about a determined and animated Afghan teen living in Tehran, who dreams of being a famous rapper. But in Iran, the government doesn’t let girls sing solo. And in her Afghan home she is expected to become a teenage bride. With her family keen to marry her off to receive her dowry, tradition bears down on Sonita. Armed with nothing but passion and persistence, she must turn obstacle into opportunity.
Courtesy of Women Make Movies - Closing Night in New York


In Sydney, Human Rights Watch in partnership with the Sydney Film Festival presents a special preview screening of Sonita

Tuesday, June 14 2016
6:30 PM | Screening - Event Cinemas George St, 500-525 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000
8:30 PM | Q&A - The Treasury Room, Sydney Town Hall, Sydney NSW 2000
Human Rights Watch Priority Seating Screening tickets: $25 + booking fee

“This film depicts extremely well the circumstances that lead girls in Afghanistan to flee forced and child marriages, as well as the difficulty Afghan girls and women face when they have encountered more liberal cultures through their lives as refugees, but are expected to comply with Afghan gender norms.”- Heather Barr, senior researcher, Women's Rights Division

To learn more on this topic visit HRW.org

Credits

Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami

Director

Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami was born in Tehran and studied filmmaking and animation in Tehran Art University. Her short documentary works include Pigeon Fanciers (2000), A Loud Solitude (2010), Born 20 Minutes Late (2010), Going Up the Stairs (2011), and the animated documentary Cyanosis (2007).