PAKISTAN, IRAN THROUGH DOCUMENTARIES:
AGAINST MY WILL AND ALONG CAME A SPIDER
In the press conference held on Wednesday, March 5th at the Olympion Renault theatre in the framework of the 5th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century, directors Αyfer Ergun and Μaziar Bahari introduced us to the harsh realities and extreme situations in Pakistan and Iran, respectively.
Αyfer Ergun, who is Turkish but lives in Holland, had this to say about her film Against my will: “I work for International Amnesty and I learned about the problems of Pakistani women. A man goes unpunished for killing a woman in Pakistan. I got in touch with two select lawyers who founded an asylum for women in danger of being put to death by their own relatives”. “I met 14 women there but my film focused on three of them. The saddest part is that one of them was persuaded by her relatives to return home. I later found out that she had been killed. I was furious and returned to Pakistan. I visited her house, spoke with her relatives and filmed them with a secret camera.” “The second woman was able to flee to Europe while the third was nearly killed when her husband attempted to burn her alive”. “I don’t think my film will be shown in Pakistan. They’re not ready to accept it and the men are completely negative towards it”.
Μaziar Bahari spoke about his film And Along Came a Spider: “My film is about an extremist Islamist who killed 16 women and has divided the public opinion in Masad, Iran. The reformers in Iran say he’s guilty while the fundamentalists salute the murders saying they are just because the victims had either been imprisoned for prostitution or involved in drug activities”. “On my way to Afghanistan I had to wait in Masad for my visa. I learned about the murderer and got in touch with his family. They were all willing to talk”.
“I was astonished by the fact that some people supported the murderer who had performed inconceivable crimes. It wasn’t easy to speak with him. I was patient. “I had many dilemmas about it because it was the first time I became personally involved with a film. I was depressed of living and speaking with him and felt guilty for the victims’ children”. “I don’t think this man’s brain cells work properly. He acted normally, like a perfect citizen but he’s a murderer. Perhaps the same applies to Sadam Husein. He doesn’t look insane but he probably is”.
