Docunight #36 [Toronto]: Sonita

Sonita

Directed by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami

2015 / 91 min

Persian with English Subtitles

If the 18-year old Sonita had a say in things, Michael Jackson would be her father and Rihanna her mother!

She is a dreamer, always writing things about her big dream of becoming a famous rapper in her scrapbook. This, given the fact that women are not even allowed to sing in Iran! So for the time being, her only fans are the other teenage girls in the Tehran shelter; where as a refugee from Afghanistan, Sonita is getting help and counseling for the trauma she has suffered. As an added complication, her family has a very different future planned for her: As a bride in an arranged marriage, she is worth $9,000!

How can Sonita succeed in making her dreams come true?

Director Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami tries to answer this question. In the film, Sonita makes her case through her music video by arguing against forced marriage practices that take away women’s freedom.

Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami is a Sundance Award-winning documentary filmmaker who was born in Tehran. She has a BA in cinema and an MA in animation. She has made several short and feature-length documentaries, and has done researches on “animated documentary” and Cyanosis is her work for her MA degree. Her research has been published as a book in Iran.

Her other documentary, “Going Up the Stairs: Portrait of an Unlikely Iranian Artist” was shown at Docunight in 2015.