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Would You Listen?
Two talented Nordic film makers — Hamy Remezan and Rungano Nyoni — have created a thought-provoking 12-minute film to immerse you in the world of a Muslim woman trying to escape domestic violence through the frustrating medium of a translator. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but this is an intense, harrowing short film that places you in the flip-side of a multicultural world.
https://vimeo.com/196593911
I’m curious if you end up agreeing with the film makers’ opinions on their own film, but we’ll leave that one for a separate post. In the meantime, enjoy the show.
Published in Culture
Oh, I definitely agree with this. But it seemed that the mother felt that the father would kill both of them. I presume she was raised in the culture. So why did the mother not know what the son would do. Not really criticizing the film. It was just a slight disconnect for me.
I wondered too, but then I thought being his mom overrode everything else, and I don’t think she thought he’d call his dad to come get him. I felt like she hoped if she got him away from that culture, she could raise him to be different.
You’re absolutely right. We don’t know why the mother was as disconnected from her son as the son was from his mother. We also don’t know how long the abuse was going on. (My guess – given the son’s age – is it was many years.) We (the audience) are left to try to understand this family through our own cultural lens — and it leaves us puzzled, even angry. I do not know these gifted filmmakers, but the dialogue we are currently having on this thread is probably exactly what they hoped their film would inspire!
Let me throw another stone in the pond. The mother continually says that the father also threatened to kill his son. Do you believe her? Could that be true? Would a father in this culture consider killing his (presumably) eldest male child? Or was this a ploy by the mother to elicit assistance?
That crossed my mind also. I vote for ploy angle, but I’d really like to know what the film makers had in mind.
Typically I don’t give much of a rat’s behind about “film” but I thought this one was quite well done, especially the repetition showing the different points of view. I hope it is widely seen.
That struck me too. I didn’t believe the son would be in danger at all.
*edit* – Did she know enough about Western culture to know that it would add to the urgency? Or did she feel she had to add him because nobody from any culture would care if a mere woman were in mortal danger?
I think the abusive husband threatened to kill the son in order to scare the Mom. I don’t think the son knows about this or the threat that was made against his Mom’s life.
I didn’t think that the son was OK with the violence against his Mom but quite often in situations like this (among non-Muslim children with abusive parents as well) violence and abuse become normalized the kids become numb to it. It sounds weird but I have heard that from interviews with adults that all sorts of horrible stuff that happened to them in their childhood didn’t seem unusual.
On a completely different matter, in tribal culture, you can never trust an outsider with intra-tribal stuff. Native-American women and children who are abused by Native men also feel that they are traitors if they seek assistance from a non-Native Church or friend.
IMO tribal culture is almost always bad and I really wish I could see the statistics comparing the rate of Christian-Arab violence against women and Muslim-Arab rates of violence against women.
Yes to both questions. (imho) The fact that the mother brought her son with her attests to the fact that she was very aware of her cultural environment and her circumstantial obstacles. She is a formidable character! (And for what it’s worth, the filmmakers actually left me with hope for her individual future…although not as much for the culture as a whole.)
Great insights…especially about familial behaviors across cultures. This may well be why the film struck such a strong chord with the current audience. We recognize far more than we may be able to consciously admit.
I think the boy thinks that he really can defend the mother. She knows he can’t, and that he’s in danger too.
He’s not betraying his mom. He really doesn’t fully comprehend the situation. He’s just a kid after all.
Alright, Pointy Eared et al. The time has come. What ARE the filmmakers’ opinions on their own film?
Just the opposite for me. I think she realized that all hope was lost, and that she was being returned to her slaveowner to be slashed to death by him.
I have to admit that I couldn’t watch this…Though I’m not by any means in circumstances approximating hers, the helplessness and inability to effect a change, have been at least nodding acquaintances of mine over the past year or so…Maybe I’ll try again when it doesn’t strike so close to home for me.
You must have missed Mama Toad’s comment that had a link to the interview.
I did. Thank you very much!
Thanks for reinforcing my point.
All great.
BUT.
What is her feeling on Sharia?
Does she believe Islam is destined to rule the world?
Is she a muslim first and foremost or an American?
No thanks. How are you going to separate the Moduro supporters from the others?
I’ve met lots of people from the former USSR and East Germany who are nostalgic for the “good old days”….
Don’t see lots new conservative voters in those choices either…
Also, their government tells them that the privations they’re experiencing are because of American policies.
Ricochet talks alot about Islam but I often think that the problems in Islamic countries are more tribal than theological. My main beef with Islam isn’t so much with the founding texts but that Islam has not addressed how bad tribal cultures are for children, women and minorities.
Sikhism for example has a pretty good foundational document for establishing equality between the sexes but it fails to squelch the violence and misogyny of Punjabi culture.
I read about two honour killings in the UK by Sikhs. The nature of their savagery was exactly the same as when honour killings are done by Pakistani Muslims. Perhaps what was most chilling was a middle-class Sikh Grandma arranging the death of her daughter-in-law because she wanted to divorce her son.
Sikhs also practice female foeticide in both the Punjab province of India and Canada.
A number of Syrian refugees do bring with them a savage culture but I think the savagery might be drawn from a tribal culture rather than Islam. Sikh violence against women seems exactly the same. Women don’t count for anything (despite explicit proclamations made by Gurus) and if a women brings your family dishonour killing her regains honour. Furthermore, women are weirdly cooperative in their subjugation and abuse.
If anyone gets any information about the rates of violence that Druze or Christian Syrians do compared to Muslims please let me know.
Maybe we should let them in if they can pass an economics test. This of course rests on the presumption that power hungry leftists won’t corrupt the test.
Exactly my thought. Even if Islam is reformable (and they would have to reform their sacred texts) why would we want that reform to happen in our country?
I agree with Simon. That’s how I understood the ending.
That’s how I saw it too.
Me too.
I’ve never brought up politics or theology. But her life and general opinions and behavior aren’t consistent with such beliefs — which is as much as I really care to say on the internet.
But I will add something else: we need to remember that when such ideologies try to become widespread they run up against human nature. Islamic teaching appeals to something in human nature — or it would be no danger at all — but it also runs sharply against other human instincts and desires. When we suspect every “moderate Muslim” of being secretly radical — and especially when cultural or political leaders talk in those terms — I think we’re in error. When we examine their rationalizations I think we forget how that plays into it. For our own sakes — and I’m not specifically referring to immigrants here — we want to appeal to those instincts and to strengthen those who are uncomfortable with — or have doubts about — the radical ideology they’re raised in.
When the message we send is “we think you’re actually all like them” it pushes them in the other direction. That’s human nature, too.
I understand completely why the ending strikes you this way…unless you see this visit to the police as her first step forward; that her ability to finally take action – any action – even action that was thwarted this time – will result in future action, with perhaps a more positive outcome. Because the filmmakers let us connect the dots in the plot (and didn’t, as they said, “spoon feed” us all the details), different viewers can interpret the story differently. Amazing what just 11 minutes of great storytelling can inspire, isn’t it.
Future action? Her next future action may be in a grave.
Maybe. We’ll never really know, of course. But here’s what I love about this story. Both interpretations (of the ending) can spur the same response in the viewer — deep engagement and conviction that her circumstance must change.