Runaway

Runaway

RUNAWAY tells the storeis of the girls and women who spend time at a Women's Center in Tehran. The center is a safe haven in what is a hostile world for many of its clients. All of these girls have reached a personal breaking point and have run away from home. Beaten and verbally abused by fathers and brothers, neglected by their mothers, raped by step-fathers, sold as children into marriage by their own parents, abused, maltreated, humiliated and berated – the Women's Center offers them respite, at least for a time. In director Kim Longinotto's documentary, the protagonists find the words to help them describe the monstrosities they are expected to endure day in and day out. The perpetrators also get a chance to speak. They justify their actions and in the process reveal much about themselves and their often incomprehensible views of the world. In the end, the families promise to make amends and the girls go back home. The Tehran Women's Center is also a place of reconciliation: here the counselors negotiate conditions so that the girls agree to return to their families. Whether things at home will eventually change for the better is left unanswered.

Credits

Original Title: Runaway
Language: English
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Year : 2001
Duration: 87 Min.
Color
Director: Kim Longinotto, Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Script: Kim Longinotto, Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Camera: Kim Longinotto
Editing: Oliver Huddleston
Sound: Mary Milton
Production: Channel Four Films
Festivals: Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival, Toronto (CA), Visions du réel Nyon (CH), DocAviv International Film Festival, Tel Aviv (IL), Chicago International Film Festival (USA), Edinburgh International Film Festival (UK), Dokfest München (D), Newport Beach International Film Festival, One World Prague (CZ), It's all true Sao Paolo International Film Festival (BR), Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (GR), Margaret Mead Film Festival, Sheffield Documentary Film Festival (UK), New Zealand Film Festival, Seoul Human Rights Film Festival (KOR), Seoul Women's Film Festival, Iranian Diaspora Film Festival
Awards: Joris Ivens Award Nomination, IDFA; Jury Prize for Best Documentary, Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, Children's Rights Award, Osnabrück Film Festival; Silver Dhow Award, Zanzibar International Film Festival

This film is not available in the US and Canada.

Dialogues from the film

Mayram 12 years old

Center worker: “Tell me why you came to Tehran?”

Maryam: “My brother hurts me... he beats me, so I ran away from home. We have a big cable and he beats me with it, all over my body.”

Center worker: “When you ran away, didn't you worry that something might happen to you?” “Don't you want to go home?”

Maryam: No, I don't!

...

Center Worker : “We can't let someone stay if they have a family. You can't have everything, you know. You must put up with hardship in your life until you can stand on your own feet...You must go back to your family and live a normal life. Society is full of wolves, do you understand? God was good to you this time.” Runaway

Getting advice at the women's shelter

Parisa 16 years old

'I ran away because my father humiliated me in front of everyone... The day I got my exam results I saw I'd failed again in three subjects... I knew when I went home he'd beat me and lock me up.... That was why I was scared. What I said (to the police) … was all lies. I knew if I told the truth they'd send me home.'

After some days, Parisa is collected by her family

Center worker: Parisa will tell you what she has to say. And God willing, with her promises and the agreement we'll all reach here … she'll go back happily. Say what you have to say, my dear.

Father: Thank God she's reached us intact. ...

Parisa: … I wasn't thinking straight, I was scared.

Father: But you had no problems. Parisa: Oh no, I didn't have any problems at home.... My family is very nice to me. I regret what I did. It was a mistake. ...

Center Worker: We're so happy that Parisa says she's sorry. Let us thank God.

Parisa's father: ...We all did a thanksgiving prayer.. And thank God she's still a virgin. We are grateful to you and your colleagues.... Thank you for all you have done.

Film Comment:

Khashayar 21.05.2009

Ein sehr bewegender Film! Es macht den Eindruck, dass die meisten dieser Mädchen aus dem Umland Teherans kommen. Das erkennt man an dem Akzent, den sie haben. Ein sehr zu empfehlender Film!