“As women, we’re all resilient, but why do we Afghan women always have to live between the victim and the victor?” asks POV issue #61 cover star Nelofer Pazira-Fisk in In the Room. The award-winning Afghan-Canadian author, journalist, and filmmaker sits down for a conversation with writer/director Brishkay Ahmed in this documentary about the fight for equality for Afghan women. POV has the first look at the trailer for In the Room ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Director Brishkay Ahmed’s previous credits include In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland (2021), Unveiled: The Kohistan Video Scandal (2016), and Story of Burqa (2012). In the Room is a National Film Board of Canada production with Teri Snelgrove as producer. The film will play at additional festivals on the circuit following its VIFF premiere.
In the Room sees Ahmed check in with five figures to discuss women’s rights and the complexity of life in Afghanistan. Besides Pazira-Fisk, participants in In the Room include Vida Samadzai, who made history as the first Afghan participant in a pageant at an international level in 30 years by appearing in Miss Earth 2003 and received death threats as a result. She’s also banned from re-entering Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Afghan-Canadian actress, singer, and activist Mozhdah Jamalzadah shares with Ahmed that she’s slept with a gun under her pillow due to backlash for sharing the power of her voice. Finally, women like Sahar Parniyan and Shogofa Sediqi, who are now based in Kingston and Halifax, respectively, speak of finding ways to empower women at home from afar. The film brings these voices together to portray just a few women among the many whose resilience provides hope for a nation where women still are banned from receiving an education.
Watch the first trailer for In the Room below:
Synopsis: In the face of exile, five Afghan women’s commitment to freedom and equality empowers them to take the world stage and reclaim their homeland in Brishkay Ahmed’s documentary In the Room. Through a series of honest conversations, these extraordinary rebels reveal the deeply personal history of Afghanistan in all its complexity, beauty and struggle.
