Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 04 Oct only @ 17:45
Kim Longinotto / UK, India / 2013 / 90 mins
Last month, the four men who brutally assaulted a female student on a Delhi bus were sentenced to death. With her new documentary Salma, Kim Longinotto reminds us that violence against women is a often a much more insidious issue.
Today, the eponymous Salma is one of the most famous contemporary poets in India. But Longinotto’s film reveals the cruel and arduous journey that led to that status. Imprisoned by her family for 25 years following a forced marriage, Salma poured her anguish into poetry written in secret on stolen scraps of paper. The unprecedented intimacy of the poetry brought Salma to the attention of her entire country, and empowered women even as it scandalised her village.
These contradictions are the source of much of the film’s power. Salma’s mother is both her jailer and saviour, Salma’s husband began by threatening her with violence, yet later pushed her into politics. And Salma herself is the greatest enigma of all: she balances her unflinching honesty and activism with her traditional roles as dutiful wife, daughter and mother. She has cleared a path for women to follow, yet it’s clear that her progress has come at great personal cost. This documentary serves both as a stunning tribute to an extraordinary woman, and an eloquent reminder that for women around the world, the journey is still not finished.
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