Responding to accusations by the Acid Survivors Foundation Pakistan (ASF), directors of the Oscar-winning film Saving Face Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge said they never promised that the film would not be broadcast in Pakistan.
According to a joint press release, the directors said the subjects of the documentary were told beforehand that Saving Face would be shown in Pakistan.
The ASF, which had cooperated on the film, is taking legal action against the producers as some survivors expressed fears of a backlash.
“We had no idea it would be a hit and win an Oscar. It’s completely wrong. We never allowed them to show this film in Pakistan,” said Naila Farhat, 22, who features fleetingly in the documentary.
Chinoy and Junge said that the acid-attack survivors featured in the documentary had signed legal releases. “The legal releases were presented to anyone who was part of the film and these were also made available in Urdu and fully explained to the subjects by the ASF themselves, precisely to ensure that there was no ambiguity and to maintain the highest standard of ethics on our part,” the press statement said.
The directors also said they never made financial commitments to the victims.
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I cant believe that Sharmeen never offered the victims any monetary compensation for working in the film!!!!
why the heck???? Just use ur own ppl for making a movie and then not even pay them when you can see their plight- the actors were carefully chosen - they shud have been compensated!!!
Obviously as it is making money, the people in the film now want some royalties or money.
@Syed Owais Mukhtar: The film will be available for streaming through the internet and will ultimately be downloaded and copied and shared. No one can hide the truth.
@Aziz: If Pakistan's face is ugly, it is a result of Pakistani themselves and not any outsiders. Man up to your own crimes and social evils instead of running and hiding for cover.
Garbage movie saving face
I am as pro-pakistan as anyone but whats wrong with showing things that are TRUE.......if you do not like the way Pakistan is portrayed then get up and change the society for the better. You can not just suppress the reality in hopes that it goes away.
will she make a movie on Palastin or Kashmir ? never she will never made... because she just want to show Pakistans ugly face....
This film is for the rest of the world, just to show the bad face of Pakistan. This is the reason the film will not be shown in Pakistan, the Islamic circles are in opposition to this film and we can not deny this fact as the most of the population falls in this circle while the modernized and westernized like Sharmeen are less than 0.01 %
If as appears to be the case they had signed a legal release agreement, they have no grounds to oppose the release of this documentary in Pakistan. The fact that the film was more successful than intended was not foreseen by anyone but that surely should not have any bearing on Ms. Chinoy's legal rights.
“We had no idea it would be a hit and win an Oscar".
I might be wrong but this line makes me sceptical about the intentions behind this law suit.
This film is meant for Pakistan and the Oscar is for Pakistan . The acid victims have nothing to be ashamed off, they are the brave ones who made the change via film, media, and even made PAK to enact the law.
How PAK protects these victims from feared back lash will show how far PAK has progressed.
It is understandable that the victims and their relatives expect a payout now. But receiving money will only hasten their suffering. Since money is payed, the crime is ok attitude will pervade.