Prominent Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat stated at the Tokyo International Film Festival that women face deep structural discrimination in the film industry. She identified a lack of funding for female filmmakers and the unawareness of financing institutions as primary causes of this inequality.
Ms. Sadat, who now lives in Germany, spoke at a panel titled "The Future of Women's Cinema," explaining that discrimination against women begins in the early stages of film development and financing. Referring to the obstacles in Afghanistan's film scene, she said, "There is a cultural mafia of a group of old men that you can never enter as a woman."
The Afghan director added that women are often forced to compromise and surrender to gain equal opportunities and privileges as men. She explained that to continue her filmmaking career, she chose to collaborate with the European film industry but faces inequality within its financing system as well.
"Filmmaking is a crime in Afghanistan," Ms. Sadat said. "In Europe, the situation is not as severe, but the discrimination is fundamental and exists within the system itself."
Shahrbanoo Sadat, who was a jury member for the competition section of this year's Venice Film Festival, criticized the low representation of women in the competition. She noted that out of 20 films in the Venice competition, only one was directed by a woman, which ultimately won the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion.
She added, "Female directors are not allowed to make bad films." In Sadat's view, female filmmakers should have the same opportunity as men to experiment and even make mistakes, whereas the expectation of perfection places additional pressure on their professional careers.
Sadat's latest film, "There Are No Good Men," opened the Berlin Film Festival and was also screened at the Tokyo festival. Referring to the situation in Afghanistan, she said, "The people of our country are completely busy surviving. We don't think about the future; we think about the present."
Source: Media
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