Lingui, The Sacred Bonds

As a single mother, Amina (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane) was rejected by her family and the community. When her 15-year-old daughter Maria (Rihane Khalil Alio) turns out to be pregnant and absolutely doesn't want to keep it, she faces an even tougher fate than Amina herself: in Islamic Chad, abortion carries a severe penalty. Mother and daughter have no choice but to help themselves and appeal to female solidarity in a patriarchal society. ‘Lingui, the Sacred Bonds’ is a powerful and moving portrait of women that tackles the taboo surrounding abortion in a haunting way. With his beautifully shot film, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun pays tribute to female solidarity and resistance to traditional power structures, be they religious or patriarchal.

‘For all its ostensible gentleness, [Haroun’s] storytelling is driven by a need to challenge the country’s reactionary theocratic males. There are fierce and even shocking stabs of sexuality and violence cutting through the opaque, stoic calm… The intense, focused performances from the two central women keep this drama in a hyper-alert state: we are intensely aware of all that is at stake and how mother and daughter are battling for survival.’—Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian