Ending the violence

“HONOUR” KILLINGS, sexual harassment, rape and discrimination will be in focus during the first Bangkok edition of an international film festival for Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG), which will show nine movies over four days next week at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.
The invite-only opening screening on Thursday will be the Pakistani drama “Dukhtar” (“Daughter”), the feature debut of writer-director Afia Nathaniel. Pakistan’s official submission to this year’s Academy Awards, “Dukhtar” follows a mother and her 10-year-old daughter as they go on the run to keep the girl out of an arranged marriage to a tribal leader.
Next Friday, a young Filipina is followed on her first days of work for a middle-class Singaporean family in the acclaimed drama “Ilo Ilo”, which was the first Singaporean feature to win an award at the Cannes Film Festival. Set during the 1997 financial crisis, the drama focuses on family dysfunction as the migrant-worker maid bonds with the family’s five-year-old son. There will be a talk on migrant workers and violence, organised by UN Women Asia Pacific in partnership with the International Labour Organisation. And there will be the screening of “Te doy mis ojos” (“Take My Eyes”), a 2003 Spanish drama about a mother who flees an abusive husband.
There’s a full day of screenings and events on November 28, with the 2010 Turkish-German drama “When We Leave”, about a young German-Turkish woman who flees an abusive marriage in Istanbul and seeks safety with her family in Berlin. The star-studded documentary “Girl Rising” has uplifting stories about girls from nine countries, with each girl’s story written by well-known writers from each country and voiced by big-name actors. For example, a Cambodian girl’s story is written by noted Cambodian author Loung Ung. Celebrities lending their voices include Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett and Selena Gomez. A side event will be a discussion on education and violence by representatives of Unesco and UN Women. And the day will wrap up with a screening of the French coming-of-age drama “Girlhood”, in which a teenager joins an all-girl street gang in her housing project.
The fest’s closing day on November 29 will address different accounts of domestic violence with the Argentine drama “Refugiado” (“Refugee”), which has a pregnant woman and her seven-year-old son fleeing the boy’s abusive father, and the American documentary “Private Violence”, which pokes holes in the logic of the commonly asked question: “Why didn’t she just leave?” The issue will be examined further in an accompanying talk.
And the festival closes with the documentary “Brave Miss World” in which Israeli model and actress Linor Abargil, Miss World 1998, turns her shocking story of tragedy into a forum for global activism against rape.

FREE FEST
 The EVAWG Film Festival runs from next Thursday until November 29 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld in Bangkok.
Tickets are free and will be handed out 30 minutes before the shows.
For more details, check bit.do/evawgfilmfest or bit.do/FB-EVAWGFilmFest.