A Girl in the River 2015

     Included in the title are the words The Price of Forgiveness.  Saba is 18 years old and she is a young Pakistani woman living with her parents and siblings in Gujranwala.  She has been engaged to a young man in her village for four years and she wants to marry him.  Her immediate family was OK with this arrangement but her uncle was not.  He decided she should marry another man, he is her uncle’s brother-in-law and he's a rich man.  One early morning, Saba runs away from home, she goes to a local court with her fiance and they marry.  Her father and uncle come to her in-laws’ house.  They say Saba should go back to their home and the new husband should take her as his wife honorably.  They are worried that neighbors and society will look down upon the family and shame them.  They swore on the Quran that she would not be harmed.  Instead of taking her home, they drove her to a wooded area by the river.  They beat her for a long time and then they shot her.  She was put in a gunnysack and thrown in the river.  She was courageous, she persevered and she was able to use bushes to climb out of the river.  She saw the lights of a nearby gas station and she was taken to a hospital buy paramedics.  Usually, 99% of women attacked in honor killings do not survive to tell their story or accuse their attackers!!

     Saba’s father and her uncle were taken to jail and Saba is provided with an attorney.  He files her case against her father and uncle in court and Saba is determined to fight for her case.  She wants to make examples of her father and uncle.  She wants them to be shot in public so no other father or relative does this to a woman and their family.  Community members in the neighborhood said they would shun her in-laws if she didn’t forgive the charges?  She has two choices, forgive her family because of pressure or continue to fight the case?  Her father and uncle could be released after serving 5 years.  What would happen to Saba and her new family when they are released?  In these communities, the men feel like they own the women.  They need to be in control and the best way to do this is to silence them.  The issue of shame and honor is very powerful and the way to press women down is to kill them??  Saba credited her survival to the false vows taken on the Holy Book.  She will always have a scar on her face and her hand from the gunshot wounds.   I thought this was very good.  (4*)   

   

40 min, Doc directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Hinoy with Asad Jamal, Saba.

Note:  Imdb 7.9 out of 10, Amazon 4.2* out of 5* with 14 reviews.

Special Note:  After the first showing of this film, Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy announced that the Prime Minister of Pakistan would change the law on honor killing.  Tina Brown and Sheila Nevins produced this film in collaboration with HBO Documentary Films.  Winner out of 74 entries submitted to the 88^th Academy Awards.