A women in Pakistan sentenced to death for falling in love becomes a rare survivor of the country’s harsh judicial system .
A Girl in the river:The price of forgiveness is a 2015 documentary film directed by sharmeen obaid chinoy about honour killings in Pakistan. The film is produced by Tina Brown and sheila Nevins in collaboration with HBO documentary films. A girl in the river was edited by geof Bartz,A.C.E .The documentary was well received by critics & earned widespread critical acclaim.
There are moments when humanity & compassion are lost among cultural reason & logic .Humanity & compassion are like stones thrown among other stones,piling up & disregarded as rubble or debris
Saba,the focus of the oscar winning documentary A girl in the river:The price of forgiveness, is one of these stones .Despite its poetic, even romantic titles, this film is a straight talking story about a Pakistani women’s punishment for finding love.
Saba falls for a man named Qaiser. Saba’s father & uncle do not approve of this match because Qaiser is from a poorer family. Nevertheless, Saba runs away & marries him. Saba’s father & uncle are deeply angered that saba has acted against their wishes. Despite swearing on the Quran that they forgive her & that they will return her home safely, saba’s father drives her to a set of trees, pulls the trigger. In an attempt to hide saba’s father drives her to a set of trees, pulls out a pistol ,puts it to his daughter’s head & pulls the trigger. In an attempt to hide saba’s body, they put her in a bag & throw her in river.
A girl in the river portrays that honor and respect are the most valuable trade assets. Both are built upon maintaining control of daughters & wives. As fathers & brothers are the breadwinners,they maintain power .By keeping women at home ,they are confined. The milk spoils when women are unleashed to become more than child bearers and caregivers & are allowed to make autonomous decisions such as who they will marry .
When saba’s father told his wife he would kill saba, he says she could do nothing but cry . “For I am her husband, & she is just my wife ”
When saba’s father Maqsood speaks, it is as if he is giving a sermon .”whatever we did,we were obliged to do it. She took away our honor,this was unlawful of her ” He uses a metaphor of comparing his daughter to drop of piss in a gallon of milk. The drop ruins the whole gallon of milk. The metaphor perfectly articulates his cultural and family position. Law is not written. It is his duty to keep the women in his family in line with community law.
Obaid chinoy became the first Pakistani woman to win two Academy Awards with this short documentary. Her first was for saving face,about acid attacks in Pakistan. For her second win,she walked onto the stage overflowing with pride and confidence “This is what happens when determined women get together “. She ended her speech by stating that after seeing the film ,the prime minister agreed to take steps in removing the “honor” from the act & therefore be ruled as a killing.
I’m inspired to be vigilant. I’m inspired to stand up unwaveringly for what is right & what is in my heart. I’m inspired by sharmeen obaid chinoy
The extraordinary story of a young Pakistani women who lived to tell her narrow escape from an attempted “honor ” killing by her father and uncle. Told through the lens of true love story,the film tells the story of saba who was shot and left for dead after marrying a man once promised to her .The result is a scathing examination of the contradiction b/w modernism & tradition within Pakistani society .
Film Horizon 