The director, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, captured several years in the life of a young Afghan girl, Sonita, who escaped the Taliban and moved to Iran with her siblings. She was supposed to get married with an elderly man under an arranged marriage. Her family was to get USD 9,000 for the very young bride. However, Sonita's dream of her future differed from the future others scheduled for her. She wanted to become a famous rapper despite the fact that in Iran, female solo singing was banned.
Her life took a completely different turn when she dared to approach the film director with a bold proposal. "Every Afghan man can buy me, why can't you? I'm for sale anyway. If you found someone who would pay for me and gave me the money, I'd pay it back as soon as I'd make enough money by doing music," said Sonita. Soon after that, her first clip Brides for Sale, was made which now has nearly 400,000 views on YouTube. The young rapper visited Prague this year and the audience at the crowded Lucerna cinema hall gave her standing ovations.
In the audience voting, the Sonita documentary won the average mark of 1.16. Audiences in 14 other towns in the Czech Republic will have the opportunity to watch it.
At the second position in the AVAST Foundation Audience Award, with the mark of 1.22, was a documentary by Helena Třeštíková Mallory. The additional screening of Mallory begins today at 5 p.m. at the big hall of the Atlas cinema.
The Babushkas of Chernobyl documentary, directed by Holly Morris and Anne Bogart, about old ladies who happily live in the contaminated zone around the ruins of the nuclear power plant, won the third position. The festival audience will have the last chance to see this film today at 1:30 p.m. in the large hall of the Světozor cinema.
In other towns, One World will screen also films HeartCore and Among the Believers, that have ranked in the spectators' top ten most popular films.
Following the Prague part, the festival will move to another 32 towns in the Czech Republic and to Brussels.
All the awards of the One World Festival will be received by the filmmakers and other guests on Wednesday, 16 March, from 7 p.m. in the Lucerna cinema. Admission to the festival closing ceremony is by invitation only.
For more information, please visit www.oneworld.cz.
Photos and further details will be provided by Tereza Hronová (telephone number: 731 129 553, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
