Berlin Feminist Film Week presents Sonita (Berlin Preview)

We are happy to present the Berlin premiere of the documentary SONITA at Moviemento on May 24th. SONITA is an award-winning documentary which follows Sonita, a refugee from Afghanistan living in Tehran and making rap music. Sonita gets counseling for the traumas she has suffered and guidance in shaping her future. Her family has a very different future planned for her: as a bride she's worth $9,000. What's more, women aren't allowed to sing in Iran. How can Sonita still succeed in making her dreams come true?

After the film, Sonita-editor Rune Schweitzer and 143band will join us for a discussion. Paradise, one half of the duo 143Band is the first female rapper in Afghanistan and their lyrics often deal with topics such as violence and discrimination against women.

Feature presentation: Sonita / Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami / 2015 / Iran/DE/CH / 91 min
Venue: Moviemento, Berlin
Date: May 24th, 2016
Language: OmEnglU

Long synopsis

Sonita is an 18-year-old female, an undocumented Afghan illegal immigrant living in the poor suburbs of Tehran. She is a feisty, spirited, young woman who fights to live the way she wants, as an artist, singer, and musician in spite of all her obstacles she confronts in Iran and her conservative patriarchal family. In harsh contrast to her goal is the plan of her family – strongly advanced by her mother – to make her a bride and sell her to a new family. The price right now is about US$ 9.000.
The main storyline of the film builds around Sonita’s struggle to escape a forced marriage. She fights with the dilemma of not loosing her family, but still be able to build a life of her own. In order to do so, she needs to obtain resident status, and to record and make video clips for her songs on a miniscule budget. Through this, we witness her family and their dilemmas and get to know her friends and colleagues who are also child laborers in the NGO “House of Affection”.
Will Sonita be forced into marriage? Will she succeed in recording her songs? Will her family manage to take her back to Afghanistan? The film unfolds in Sonita’s home, at the NGO and in music studios in and around Teheran. Later we will need to travel to her hometown in Afghanistan in order to get ID papers, because there might be a future in the United States...

Thanks to Give Something Back to Berlin for their support!