It revolves around a married couple who suffer from the difficult economic conditions in Yemen and they have three children, and with the wife discovering that she is pregnant once more, she begins to think regarding aborting herself.
The Yemeni filmmakers “Weary” said on Saturday that the film won the “Amnesty International Award” at the Berlin Film Festival, which is presented to the most influential film on the human side among all sections of the festival.
The film’s co-producer, Mohsen Al-Khulaifi, wrote on his Facebook page: “The film also received the second highest percentage of votes in the Audience Award.”
The film is directed by Amr Gamal, starring Khaled Hamdan, Abeer Mohamed, Samah Al-Omrani, Islam Selim, Roua Al-Hamshari and Omar Elias. It revolves around a married couple who suffer from difficult economic conditions in Yemen and have three children. When the wife discovers that she is pregnant once more, she begins to think regarding aborting herself, despite her knowledge of the social consequences that may result from this act.
The film was shown in the “Panorama” section of the seventy-third session of the festival, which launched earlier this month and concludes its activities on Sunday.
The film is the second work of the director, who was born in the city of Aden, following his film “Ten Days Before the Wedding,” which met with public success when it was shown in 2018 and won awards from international film festivals.
The director of the film said in an interview with the Berlin Festival website earlier: “I was keen to film the film in its natural places in the city of Aden, and I took panoramic shots with the camera showing many of the city’s landmarks, which I fear will disappear in the coming years.”
He added, “The film does not discuss the controversy of abortion and whether it is forbidden or permissible. Abortion is a symbol of the sacrifices that Yemenis resort to in order to continue their lives. When circumstances force us to give up our dreams, we say that our dreams were aborted, and here the idea of abandoning the expected child symbolizes giving up dreams and the future.”