Director: Smriti Basnet
Country:
Nepal
Category: Develoment
Logline
A young social mobiliser advocating
safe abortion for women in her community is compelled by her circumstances to
step into an unknown future abroad.
Synopsis
24-year-old Nazma Khatun
is a new wave of progressive women in Nepal. Based in Argakhanchi, 365 km west
of Kathmandu, she works with fellow villagers, discussing sexual health with an
engaging openness. But the daring Nazma who openly discusses a taboo topic now
finds herself at odd cross-roads owing to fiscal pressures. She is now leaving
Nepal for a job in Qatar. Since she eloped aged 16, Nazma has been on a journey
to forge positive change for Nepali women. Then, she was disgusted at the
thought of condoms. Seven years on, she talks about contraception and sexual
health on a day-to-day basis. The work is of central importance to Nazma, a
Muslim with a six-year-old child who was previously anti-contraception. She
opens a typical session asking, “Are you shy of saying condoms?”, to be met
with restrained giggles. Every week, Nazma sets out to a different village.
Most are communities she has visited before; some she has never travelled to.
These visits oftentimes also feature visits to health and government officials
– mostly to convince them of forming a budget. Somewhere in between, Nazma
starts to feel the walls closing in – as she realizes the little financial
prosperity in Nepal. While at home, she is constantly reminded of what expected
of her -- as a wife, mother, and a Muslim woman in Nepal. Perhaps, fear of
never being able to earn enough doing what she loves pushes her to a foreign
land? Now each passing day, her vision for a liberated future for herself grows
dimmer, and she feels a constant pressure to look out for herself. She quits
her job and starts preparing for one in a foreign land: as a beautician.
Intimate and interrogative, this documentary explores one story from the
countless Nepali lives to have surrendered to the faint prospect of a better
life away from home. It aims to explore the entire journey of a migrant worker
of what they leave behind optimistically and what they eventually come back
with.
Director’s Statement
When I first met Nazma, I
wanted to know how she is so bold in a society where women are not allowed to
talk openly about such things. On discovering her more, I realized how she is
trying to create a space for herself, and for women. However, to be an independent
woman, she first has to be a providing mother, a caring daughter-in-law and
dutiful daughter. She sees s one possibility: migration. Nepal, like many South
Asian countries, experiences out-migration – where people want to find a better
future for themselves. In the process of doing so, Nepal loses youths like
Nazma who could have created a future here. And for herself, Nazma is compelled
to choose her economic future rather than work to secure the many futures of
other women. In doing so, she is right. And I am particularly interested to
explore this very choice – of what is means to jump into an unknown future.
Budget
51568 USD
Contact Information
Email: smriti.basnet09@gmail.com