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| Jennifer Lawrence's Undercover Documentary About Women in Afghanistan: 'They're Heroes, Not Victims |
"You only oppress women," the young woman tells the Taliban fighter.
"I told you not to talk," he shouts, "I'll kill you right here."
"Okay, kill me," he also raised his voice in response.
You have closed schools and universities! It is better to kill me.
A camera phone secretly captured the live encounter between the woman and the militant inside the vehicle. He had just been arrested after a protest and was about to be taken to a detention center in Kabul.
This is a scene from the documentary 'Bread and Roses', which covers the daily lives of three women in Afghanistan in the weeks following the Taliban takeover.
The film's producer is Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, who told the BBC why this moment in the film is so important to her.
"Seeing these women fighting against the Taliban made my heart beat faster," says Jennifer Lawrence.
"You don't see this side of the story, women are fighting every day, they're in the news and that's an important part of our film and the stories of these women."
She says it is painful to think that Afghan women have suddenly lost all their power.
At present, they have no autonomy in their country. They need to be allowed to document their story in their own way. This movie is produced by Excellent Cadaver. This production company was created by Jennifer Lawrence in 2018 along with her friend Justin Ciarucci.
"The documentary was born out of emotion and necessity and feeling helpless and frustrated about what she was seeing on the news," says Jennifer Lawrence.
Sayaruchi says, "Lawrence was shaken by the Taliban's takeover of Kabul in 2021 because the conditions for women were so bad."
"And he said, 'We have to give somebody a platform to tell that story in a meaningful way.'
She was a documentary filmmaker who co-founded Afghan Doctor House, an independent production company in Kabul.
Both Lawrence and Ciarucci had seen her documentary A Thousand Girls Like Me, which profiled a 23-year-old Afghan woman who, after being neglected by her family and the police, married her father. goes on national television to expose sexual exploitation by
Siaruchi tracked down Mani, who said he had already started a project involving three women in the country as they tried to gain autonomy in the months after the Taliban took over. Girls and women were barred from attending universities and schools.
Mani filmed using hidden cameras and even asked women to film themselves in safe houses with their friends and family.
Another sequence depicts a secret meeting in a windowless basement of a street in Kabul. More than a dozen women sit in rows of desks and chairs, set up like a makeshift classroom. Steam rises from the drinks in their plastic cups. They don't know each other but they all belong to different groups that protested after the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan in August 2021.
One of them, a dentist named Zahra, takes visitors to this secret meeting. When she talks to the group, she reminisces about wearing high heels and perfume and going to the park with her friends. The women around them smile.
After that, a writer named Wahida starts speaking. "Women should write their own history."
Waheeda emotionally tells the group, 'Women are not treated properly all over the world.'
Mani was well aware of the challenges of filming in such private and dangerous situations.
"I understand how to deal with difficulties because I am one of them."
"They are not victims, they are heroes."
But striking a balance between keeping women safe and telling their stories was not easy. He told the BBC that during the production process, he, Ciarucci, and Lawrence had several late-night talks.
"Whenever I had a problem or a problem, they were there," says Mani, adding that when women are united, everything is possible.
For several weeks after the fall of Kabul, Bread, and Roses was secretly filmed using several hidden cameras. Since Mani and the other ladies are now out of the country, the producers are content to give it a wide release after the Cannes Film Festival closes.
Ciarucci and Lawrence say their next challenge is to bring the film to a larger audience. It's not always easy when the story depicts an ongoing and devastating conflict.
"There's no end to this story, and when you think about how to do anything about it, you feel helpless," says Jennifer Lawrence. One to market it is a difficult thing.
As female executive producers, Ciarucci and Lawrence are still in the minority in Hollywood. A 2022 study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that women made up just 24 percent of directors, writers, and producers of the highest-grossing movies, down from 2021. Is.
"I think there's still a long way to go, but I feel positive when you have more diversity in filmmaking," says Jennifer Lawrence. This is what the people want, this is what the audience wants.
"That's why we take Jennifer's platform responsibility so seriously, she's a woman who's empowering other women," Ciarucci says. Employing women, telling women's stories, and always employing diverse people.'
"It's also because I'm a woman," replied Jennifer Lawrence. I'm lucky that I'm not prejudiced that women aren't good at different things.'