Not Like My Sister

Sweden, 2008

Living in a small village in Syria, 9 year old Rim turns into a star after participating in Leyla Assaf-Tengroth’s film, The Freedom Gang (1994). Following the film’s success, her father lets her study at school. But Rim’s liberty ended at the age of 13, when she was forced to marry her cousin. 14 years later, the director goes back to the village to document the lives of Rim and her younger sister, Dalida. Watching Rim’s suffering, Dalida objects firmly and courageously to a similar fate. She refuses all marriage options her father and uncle try to force upon her, suffers great violence and endangers her life, but does not give up. When Dalida falls in love with a Christian man from Lebanon, her family faces a test. Leyla Assaf-Tengroth voices the rare and mostly silenced voices of women whose liberty is limited since birth in a traditional chauvinist society.

Documentary  | Video  |  58   Minutes  |  Color  |  Arabic, Swedish, English & Hebrew subtitles

Screenplay: Leyla Assaf-Tengroth
Cinematography: Peter Östlund, Bo Bjelfvenstam, Fouad Ikbal, Nidal Abdulkhalek
Editing: Kjell Tunegård
Production: Cadmos Film and SVT
Festivals: Seoul
Source: SVT Sales, the Netherlands

Screened with the films:
The Water Diary

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