Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness

A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
The documentary, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2016), the film’s main character is Saba, who faces the aftermath of an honor killing and throughout the whole film, shows us almost every obstacle that she faces when trying to obtain justice from the actions of her father and uncle who tried to kill her. The film’s unique theme, narrative, and ideology is different the many of the films seen in the class but it also takes from them as well.
The film’s theme is about the societal imbalance between Males and females in Pakistan. The superiority of the males in the society of Pakistan is very apparent and the film shows the horror of what comes with such a male-dominated culture

by showing the story of Saba. . It does an excellent job of showing the dominance of the males in the society right away by showing the main issue within the first 15 seconds of the film with the text shown on screen saying, “more than a thousand women are murdered each year by male relatives who believe they have dishonored their families.” The film focuses on the case of “Honor killing” but that is the just the effect of the real issue of the film which is the view that women are lesser than men and it uses the extreme example of honor killing to show it. The film’s entire subject and theme is said by Asad Jamal, “This is not just Saba’s cause, it it is society’s cause-...Women are at a great social and institutional disadvantage. Women in Pakistani live as second-rate citizens or perhaps even worse.”
The film cements this issue about women’s rights right after Saba recounts the story of her attempted murder. Saba’s sister speaks in support of her father’s actions, saying “All our family did was to preserve their integrity and honor. Who can tolerate such betrayal from a daughter who runs away and marries without their consent?” Of course, while we expect the view of male superiority from males themselves, the film establishes the point that this isn’t just a male issue, it is a issue of the society as a whole since the film shows us how the women in the society of Pakistan view themselves, which can surprise any European or American audience.
Then when we hear father explained on screen about how he told his wife of the murder, “ ‘I have gone and killed our daughter as per my desire’ my wife cried, what else can she do? I am her husband, she is just my wife.” With those sentences we have a perfect view on how lesser women are viewed in Pakistan.
While the film establishes the theme, it also establishes the importance of honor and respect, as the recurring words of “Honor” and “Respect” are said.

When the film shows the father behind bars explaining why he shot his daughter, he does so perfectly in a metaphor, “If you put one drop of piss in a gallon of milk, the whole thing gets destroyed.” The metaphor he told tells the viewer how fragile honor and respect is in Pakistan society and how it can completely dictate how your life is in Pakistan. It makes us understand why the father attempt what he did but at the same time, doesn’t justify it by showing him behind

bars.
The film shows how males are pressured to dominate the women in their family with the elders of the neighborhood explaining, “Our society doesn’t respect people who daughters have ran away-...People with such a tarnished reputation lose all respect in the community.-....Don’t parents have a right to decide their children’s future.”
The narrative of the film heavily relies on interviews with everyone involved and their input of the situation, especially Saba’s. In fact, the story only moves forward with interviews. Text on screen are barely used except just at the beginning, the court day and to show the name and the importance of the person talking. There isn’t narration from a voice of authority, it all relies on the storytelling from a compilation of the the interviewees. The film doesn’t show any fancy aesthetics, it makes the audience feel the reality of the theme, it doesn’t have archival footage of the past, it makes us sure that this is happening in the current day. The times we do have some reenactments is when Saba or the Criminal Investigator, Ali, are talking about the crime that took place, with some B-roll helping exaggerate the story and close-ups to her face.
We aren’t given a picture on how life was before the incident or after the case closed, we are tossed in the story with how things are now, which gives us the thought that maybe things have always been like this. We aren’t given a history of a subject, we are given a story as it is happening.
The ideology the film pushes is pretty straight forward, it is for women’s rights. The films shows us the consequence of complete male supremacy in Pakistan and how the society views women as second rate citizens. The film makes the viewer feel anger and uncomfortable while watching the film and makes them hope the father and uncle face justice. The film really nails on making the viewer feel concerned about Saba.
It seems like the director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy uses film as a tool to bring awareness to the issue of women’s rights. However, it is propaganda since it does push a political agenda, but it doesn’t take away from the story. It doesn’t push it subtly as John Grierson would, it is more obvious but also more effective.
The film’s style differs then from many I watched, It doesn’t follow a narration like Night Mail, it uses interviews to move the story forward. It doesn’t show any acting, the emotions shown on screen are not entirely genuine since they know they are being filmed, but their story is.
When it comes to the film A Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness, it definitely pushes a political agenda while telling the story of Saba, a women who was shot by her father because she “hurt” his honor by eloping with a man she loved.

However, while it does push its ideology to the viewer, it doesn’t take away from the feeling the viewer feels for Saba. It does this by relying on the interviews from the family and by figures of authority. It’s narrative structure makes every moment feel more real than relying on a narrator. The interviews are conducted as the case progresses and we can see how the characters feel before and after it closes. It doesn’t have any fancy lighting, the interviews are all mostly in the interviewees natural environment. The film successfully pushes its agenda with the complete feel of humanity when it comes to the victims of the honor killing while showing the criminals behind

bars.
In conclusion, the film is unlike many of the documentaries we’ve seen in class.There is no acting and all the explanation that is needed is given by the interviewees themselves. While it doesn’t give the audience the ending we wanted, we can understand why Saba chose to forgive due.