Poetic licence: Plight of victims of violence showcased

Short films by Scottish-Iranian director screened.

LAHORE: Condition of women in the Middle East and the so-called honour killings were the subject of five short films showcased at The Last Word on Saturday.

Scottish-Iranian director Roxana Vilk has produced the films under the title, Poems in a time of Conflict: A collection of short poetry films from Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

The Last Word had arranged the event in collaboration with the British Council and the Highlight Arts.

Vilk has produced several films on poetry in conflict regions, including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ryan Van Winkle, the coordinator at Highlight Arts, introduced In the beginning, a film featuring Zaher Mousa, an Iraqi poet.

Winkle said the film was funded by Literature Across Frontiers – a European platform for literary exchange, translation and policy debate – and the British Council.

The film was originally screened at Reel Iraq 2013. It carries visuals from streets of Iraq. The poet is shown writing on a foggy glass window with his finger; the poem in the film is about miseries of war refugees.

Mousa narrates their plight as:

Their women; their women are like perfumed sadness; their gaze carried away on the wind

In another poem, he sees the miseries of children as:

In other countries, the children have footballs to play with, but not here

In this country they used the children’s heads as footballs

The film Beyond words featured two poets from Iraq – Sabrene Khadim and Awexan Nuri.

A poem by Awexan Nuri raises a question:

When a woman is killed for honour

Where is the dignity of man?

Nuri complains about the discrimination against women in the Middle East. She says women should have freedom to speak. She criticises her country for associating honour with women.

She says the condition of women in Iraq, particularly Kirkuk, is worse than anywhere else. She slams the law against honour killing. She says if a family kills a woman for having an affair with a man, the guilty is imprisoned for only three months.

In another poem about limiting the social space for women, she writes:

Four walls made me blind

So I don’t see beyond the window

Four walls shortened my hands

So I cannot get off the stars

Four walls cut my feet

So as not to appreciate the steps

She adds:

Unfortunately, no one can wipe the writings of four walls

Unfortunately no one dares to demolish these four walls

Sabrene Khadim’s poem is about war and oppression. She writes:

Whatever kills is already dead

Khadim says that for a woman poet, life in Baghdad is full of disappointments. Yet, she says, she cannot imagine leaving the city because she loves it.

The short film The confession by Palestinian poet Yehia Jaber is one of three short films Vilk produced in Beirut in May 2011.

Jaber narrates:

I choose my battle in words

There is a relationship between love and war

I choose my battle in words

I make fire by words

Save some people in words

Make victims in words

The event was followed b a question-answer session.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2014.