WITH THIS BREATH I FLY - Gulnaz and her daughter
At the height of the international occupation of Afghanistan, two women—Gulnaz, raped and impregnated by her uncle, and Farida, on the run from an abusive husband—are imprisoned on charges of “moral crimes” by an Afghan justice system that is supported by billions of dollars of aid money from the European Union. WITH THIS BREATH I FLY follows these two courageous women fighting for their freedom against a patriarchal Afghan society, while exposing the complicity of the European Union in censoring their voices, and how the international press—and the documentary itself—forever alters the course of their lives.
WITH THIS BREATH I FLY Co-Director Sam French accepts the Special Jury Award at SFF 2022 - Photo by Shane’s Maine Photography
WITH THIS BREATH I FLY is the winner of the Special Jury Award at Salem Film Fest 2022. The film screened in-person at Salem Film Fest and is available for streaming anywhere in the United States during the virtual portion of our festival which runs through Sunday, April 3.
Salem Film Fest is happy to be collaborating with Marblehead High School on some of this year’s Blog Posts and we are grateful to MHS Teacher Connor Ryan who has been working with his students in exploring this year’s festival.
This interview was written by Zoe, Summer, Caitlin, Cate, Arielle, Martha, Madeleine, Yasen, Celine, Lilly, Lia, Lauren, Griffen, and Griffin -- Marblehead High School's groundbreaking G block AP Language and Composition class.
Marblehead High School: How did you find this project?
Leslie Knott: I had done a photo project in the women’s prison in Kabul for Grazia magazine and saw firsthand the desperate situation for women being held there for moral crimes. When Clem approached me with this idea for a film, I knew that this was an underreported and important story to tell.
MHS: How did you find these women to interview?
Clementine Malpas: We were given access to the prisons through the EU. We were free to walk around the prisons and talk to anyone who was interested in telling their story. Lots of women wanted to talk to us, and a few, including Gulnaz and Farida, were happy to be filmed.
MHS: Were there other women who weren’t in the documentary whose stories stood out to you?
Producer Leslie Knott (L) and co-Director Clementine Malpas (R) - Courtesy Tiger Nest Films
CM: Yes, lots of women had really upsetting stories. We followed the case of a sixteen-year-old girl who was kidnapped from Kabul and taken to Parwan, raped and subsequently arrested for adultery. Unfortunately, we couldn’t include her in the final edit.
MHS: How did you initially begin working with/for the European Union?
CM: We were approached to apply for funding from the EU to make a film about women’s rights. We won the contract and pitched the story of moral crimes to them. They agreed on the story and helped with access to the prisons. Without them we would never have had the access.
MHS: How did the scope of the project change as your relationship with the EU changed?
CM: We followed the stories of the women for much longer than we would have, had the EU signed off on the film after the first edit. We would never have got the press coverage without the EU pulling their consent. It might have taken longer for Gulnaz to be freed. The film would have ended with Gulnaz and Farida still in prison.
Sam French: We were prohibited from filming for a year after the EU told us we had to delete all our footage and blocked access to the prisons. But after the press started covering the story, it brought attention to the matter and helped pressure President Karzai to issue a Presidential pardon for Gulnaz. Because of the international attention on their decision to block the film, the EU ended up assigning full copyright of the film to us and we were able to continue filming. Because this behind-the-scenes drama directly affected our subjects, we felt like we had to include this storyline in the film. In doing so, the film raises larger questions of power and representation – who decides whose voices are heard, what role does the media have in exposing injustice and shaping the narrative, and what responsibility does the international community have to protect women’s rights in a country like Afghanistan.
MHS: How did you account for cultural differences while filming?
CM: Once the women had consented to being on camera, we made sure their families were also happy for them to be in the film. Families are the biggest threat to women when they came out of prison. As we were a female camera crew, we had a lot of freedom with the women and their families at home.
MHS: Did you have to make any accommodations?
SF: We were very upfront about the filmmaking process to the women throughout the course of production, and clearly explained what we were trying to do in order for them to give informed consent.
MHS: Were there any special considerations?
SF: We had to respect the cultural separation of men and women in society, so we had to be very careful to have an all women crew when we were filming intimate verité scenes and interviews with the women.
WITH THIS BREATH I FLY - Gulnaz and the Uncle who raped her
MHS: Without giving anything away: were there any particular challenges in filming?
CM: Most importantly, we made sure to take into careful consideration the security of the women and to make sure that everyone was happy to be on camera.
Although we had very good access to the prisons at the start of filming, as time went on it became harder and harder to get in. Farida’s prison was a two and a half hour drive from Kabul, and we were often turned away when we arrived, or we had to spend hours drinking tea with the guards to be allowed in, or we were sent away and asked to come back another day.
It was even harder to get access to the male prisons, the courts and the women’s shelter. Often, we thought we had permission only to be turned away when we arrived.
WITH THIS BREATH I FLY - Kabul
MHS: Were there any particular challenges in bringing this project to market?
SF: Accessing funding for a project like this is a challenge. After the dispute with the EU, we ran out of money, so we launched two crowdfunding campaigns over the course of a few years to raise enough money to finish the film.
MHS: We understand that your website is accepting donations for Women for Afghan Women. How is that going so far and how can people help?
SF: We have a link on our website where people can donate directly to Women for Afghan Women, an organization that helps women accused of moral crimes, and we are donating a portion of our proceeds to them as well.
WITH THIS BREATH I FLY streams at Salem Film Fest Monday, March 28 - Sunday, April 3. Purchase tickets to the film here.
