Film Festival Showcases Israeli, Sudanese and Iranian Female Voices

Israeli filmmaker Yael Arad Zafrir’s 19-minute short film, “Leftovers” follows elderly woman Ruchama as she cares for her paraplegic husband. Their daily routine includes her pushing him in his wheelchair around Tel Aviv, bathing him and even satisfying him. When Ruchama speaks, her husband responds with the movement of his index finger.

“This man, though he can’t move anything but his finger, is alive inside,” Zafrir said, appearing via Zoom from Israel during “Stand Up for Her,” a December 12 film festival organized by Women Creating Change (WCC) and the Museum of Tolerance.

Zafrir’s film was one of three award-winning shorts screened during the event, featuring a trio of works directed by women from Israel, Sudan and Iran.

WCC’s mission is “fostering a multicultural community of Middle Eastern and North African women in entertainment through collaboration and professional development.”

Founded in 2017 by Israeli and Arab filmmakers, WCC’s mission is “fostering a multicultural community of Middle Eastern and North African women in entertainment through collaboration and professional development,” according to its website.  

WCC Founder and President Lee Broda, an independent movie producer in the United States, established the group after witnessing fellow female colleagues from the Middle East and North Africa – a region often referred to as “MENA” – successfully working together despite cultural and religious differences. This, coupled with what she perceived as an under-representation of MENA women in the entertainment industry, led to the formation of the organization.

WCC Executive Director Inbal-Rotem Sagiv said WCC has created “a space where MENA women simultaneously connect around their shared cultural background and share specific challenges faced in their careers as women.”

Iranian filmmaker Azadeh Nikzadeh’s short film, “The Girl Sitting Here,” was also screened. The four-minute short begins with a young woman hesitating as she turns a doorknob. When she enters the room, a man is standing beside a bed. He beckons her to sit, then joins her. Holding a book, he reassures her that what they are about to do is not a sin. He will recite a phrase, she will say, “I accept,” and they can follow through with the desired act. 

At the Museum of Tolerance, the screening of the tense drama – shining a spotlight on temporary marriage, a controversial practice used as a legal loophole for prostitution and sexual exploitation – was followed by an in-person appearance by Nikzadeh and the film’s two actors. 

“I want to make political films, human rights stories, and it’s been very difficult,” Nikzadeh, a Persian filmmaker based in the U.S., said.

Selected by a volunteer committee seeking films exploring themes of resilience, each of the shorts screened during the recent festival followed empathetic female characters struggling amidst challenging, even dispiriting, circumstances beyond their control.

In Zafrir’s “Leftovers,” the viewer is supposed to empathize with Ruchama. Although devoted to her disabled husband, Ruchama needs something more. A particularly discomfiting scene shows Ruchama attempting to make love to her debilitated husband, followed by her screaming into a pillow to vent her frustration at the futility of it. 

Zafrir explained how the title of her film refers to how the disabled are often forgotten by society. The director sought to humanize the paraplegic husband as well as make the wife, Ruchama, sympathetic despite seeking gratification beyond what her disabled husband can provide.

Another one of the three short films screened was Sudanese-Russian writer-director Suzannah Mirghani’s 20-minute piece “Al-Sit.” It’s set in a cotton-farming village in Sudan. The film follows 15-year-old Nafisa, who has a crush on a boy she picks cotton with, but her parents have arranged for her to marry a Sudanese businessman from abroad. When the suitor arrives in the village to meet Al-Sit, the village matriarch, Al-Sit says she will allow the marriage when snow falls over their arid land. The film concludes with a hint of magical realism, with snow falling from the sky after Nafisa, in apparent act of frustration with her lack of agency, breaks the village’s cotton machine. 

Zooming in from Qatar, Mirghani said part of the challenge of making her film was finding authentically Sudanese actors, given Sudan has virtually no film industry. Ultimately, the film’s cast features many first-time actors, she said.

“I’m glad to show a representation of Sudan and Sudanese women,” Mirghani said. 

Broda moderated each of the conversations with the filmmakers. In a statement, she said the festival grew out of the complementary missions of WCC and the Museum of Tolerance. “We were excited to collaborate with an organization that is so aligned and committed to the parallel vision of Women Creating Change, one of integrity, inspiration, positive change and the mission of fighting prejudice.”