Synopsis

Prison Sisters takes us through the journey of two young women who have been released from prison in Afghanistan. Sara’s uncle has planned to kill her in an attempt to save his honour in their small village. Fearing for her life Sara escapes to Sweden, but Najibeh stays behind. While Sara struggles with her newfound freedom, her former prison-mate Najibeh disappears and soon Sara hears that she was stoned to death. Sara and the filmmaker want to find out the truth, only to encounter a maze of half- truths on the streets of Afghanistan. We follow the two main characters, revealing what happened to them – each with an exceptional fate depicting the horrific reality for women in Afghanistan.

Trailer

Food for thought…

The documentary shows us the exceptional fate and the horrific reality that women in Afghanistan face. We witness the two main characters journey that is interwined with countless obstacles.

We see the transformation in Sara from her previous life whilst living in Sweden waiting for her asylum papers. This includes her going to school and sitting in a classroom with both men and women and her going to a gay parade. Through these trivial events we see the formation of her new perspective.
However, as the documentary progresses, questions arise concerning Sara’s new perspective and character which are part of her internal identity that she has discovered in Sweden, where society treats both men and women equally. The audience cannot help but think whether this new found perspective and change in Sara’s attitude is only due to her environment and her Afghani- Swedish friends who tell her how to stand up for herself.

This becomes clearer when her husband arrives in Sweden. We see that although Sara was living her life according to her own beliefs and values, when her husband arrives she starts to apply the gender- constricting rules that were present in her previous life in Afghanistan. We see that these rules now extend beyond a country’s borders through her husband. The times when she spoke of going to school and dressing how she liked are gone. We see that she stops going to school, instead her husband starts his education and she starts wearing her traditional dress, which she opposed before the arrival of her husband.

As always, don’t forget so share this documentary with your friends and family. Lets unite and #establishties.