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Film Info

Germany 2017 | 88 min. Director: Stefanie Brockhaus, Andreas Wolff
There is currently no offer available

Production Company

Andreas Wolff Film
Nixenweg 20
81739 München https://andywolff.com

Categories

Documentary

THE POETESS

88min & 52min English and French subtitled versions available

Synopsis

Hissa Hilal is the voice from behind the veil. Her weapon is her word. Hissa is a self-taught writer and she says what she thinks. She decides to take part in the Million’s Poet show, an Abu-Dhabi based TV show. It is the Arab world’s biggest poetry competition, and it is dominated by men. Hissa works herself up, becoming the first woman in the finals. In her poems she criticizes the patriarchal Arab society and she attacks one of the most notorious Saudi clerics for his extremist fatwas, live, in front of 75 million viewers. We’ll never see Hissa’s face. Like the majority of Saudi women, Hissa is covered from head to toe. She is not allowed to drive a car. She doesn’t own a passport. And she requires consent from her husband for any sort of activity. Coming out of nowhere, the housewife Hissa is suddenly breaking news in the biggest Western and Arab media. How did she gain the knowledge and the courage to step on stage and risk her life? This is Hissa‘s story.

Cast & Crew

Festivals/awards

* German Documentary Award (Norbert Daldrop Prize)
* European Film Award Documentary Selection
* Locarno Film Festival (Semaine de la Critique)
* IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
* All About Freedom Gdansk (Poland)
* Zurich Human Rights Film Festival (Switzerland)
* DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival (Finland)
* Stockholm Feminist Film Festival (Sweden)
* One World International Film Festival (Czech Republic)
* CPH:DOX (Copenhagen, Denmark)
* One World Romania (Bucharest, Romania)
* Millenium International Documentary Film Festival (Belgium)
* Middle East Now Festival (Firenze, Italy)
* Bolzano Film Festival Bozen (Italy)
* Millenium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival (Warszawa, Poland)
* Sydney Film Festival (Australia)
* Esperanzah! (Floreffe, Belgium)
* Festivaletteratura (Camposampiero, Italy)
* Salé Women Film Festival
* San Francisco Arab Film Festival
* Verzio Film Festival (Budapest, Hungary)
* La Mostra de CineBaix (Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Barcelona), Spain)
* DocHouse London (UK)
* Movies that Matter Foundation (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
* The British Museum (London, UK)
* Kitzbühel Filmfestival (Austria)
* Marda Loop Justice Film Festival (Calgary, Canada)
* Meeting per l'amicizia fra i Popoli (Rimini, Italy)
* European Union Human Rights Film Festival (Ankara, Turkey)
* One World Slovakia (Bratislava, Slovak Republic)
* Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival (Canada)
* Cinema Akil (Dubai, UAE)
* Docs Against Gravity Film Festival (Poland)
* London Human Rights Watch Film Festival (UK)
*Docaviv (Tel Aviv, Israel)
* DOK Leipzig (Germany)
* Dubai International Film Festival (UAE)
* São Paulo International Film Festival (Brazil)
* Terre de Femmes - FrauenWelten Filmfest (Tübingen, Germany)
* Zurich Human Rights Film Festival (Switzerland)
* All About Freedom Gdansk (Poland)

Director's comment

Hissa Hilal is a contradiction. She appears covered in black, her face is hardly visible and she could be perceived as a fanatic religious Muslim. But all of this is not the case. Hissa is a Saudi woman with four children who was born into a traditional Bedouin family in a desert tent. It's only natural for her to wear a burqa. This is a film about a woman who grabs the opportunity to speak out and to talk against religious extremism to stand for a peaceful Islam.

Production Company

Andreas Wolff Film
Nixenweg 20
81739 München https://andywolff.com

Cast & Crew

Stefanie Brockhaus, Andreas Wolff
 Andreas Wolff, Stefanie Brockhaus
 Tobias Tempel, Stefanie Brockhaus
 Hissa Hilal
 Hansjörg Weißbrich, Anja Pohl
 Christoph von Schönburg
 Sebastian Zenke

Categories

Documentary
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