Sonita is an 18-year-old female, an undocumented Afghan illegal immigrant living in the poor suburbs of Tehran. She is a feisty, spirited, young woman who fights to live the way she wants, as an artist, singer, and musician in spite of all her obstacles she confronts in Iran and her conservative patriarchal family. In harsh contrast to her goal is the plan of her family – strongly advanced by her mother – to make her a bride and sell her to a new family. The price right now is about US$ 9.000.

Media:
Radio SRF2, Filmpodcast: Kino im Kopf, April 9th 2016
SRF, Kulturplatz, March 23th 2016
SRF, Tagesschau, March 11th 2016
France Inter, Le masque et la plume, October 23th 2016

Web:

Watson.ch, Rapperin Sonita soll mit 18 für 9000 Dollar verkauft werden, April 4th 2016

Le Billet, "Sonita, l'hirondelle vole de ses propres ailes", March 4th 2016

AVAILABLE ONLINE
· Canal + VOD
· My TF1

THEATER RELEASE IN FRENCH SPEAKING SWITZERLAND: MARCH 30TH 2016

THEATER RELEASE IN GERMAN SPEAKING SWITZERLAND: APRIL 7TH 2016

THEATER RELEASE IN GERMANY: MAY 26TH 2016

THEATER RELEASE IN FRANCE: OCTOBER 12TH 2016

FESTIVALS:

2016 Vera Film Festival

2016 Ambulante

2016 Mooov

2016 Hot Docs

2016 Docs Against Gravity

2016 Indie Lisboa

2016 Documentamadrid

2016 DocsBarcelona

2016 Sheffield Doc Fest

2016 True/False Film Fest (USA)

2016 Millenium International Documentary Film Festival

2016 One World International Film Festival

2016 Tempo Documentary Festival

2016 Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival

2016 London Human Rights Watch FF

2016 FIFDH - Festival du film et Forum sur les Droits Humains

2016 ZagrebDox

2016 Human Rights Human Wrongs

2016 !f Istanbul International Independent Film Festival

2016 DocPoint - Helsinki Documentary Film Festival

2016 Sundance World Documentary Competition

2015 IDFA – Feature Length Competition

PRIX:

Prix spécial du Jury pour la compétition internationale - Festival international du cinéma des peuples Ânûû-rû Âboro

Audience Award - Take One Action Film Festivals

Audience Award - Camden International Film Festival

Audience Award - DocsBarcelona Medellin

Music Award - Indie Lisboa

NETPAC Jury Award - Moscow FF

Grand Prix International URTI for Author's Documentary

Grand Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary - Mammoth Lakes Film Festival

Best film in International Selection - Beldocs International Feature Documentary Film Festival (Serbia)

IndieMusic Award - IndieLisboa

Grand Prix Lower Siles - Docs Against Gravity Film Festival

Youth Jury Award - Sheffield Doc Fest

Award of SOS-Kinderdörfer - DOK.fest (Munich)

Audience Award - DOCUMENTAMADRID 2016

One World 2016 - Audience Award

Sundance World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize

Sundance World Cinema Documentary Audience Award

IDFA Audience Award

IDFA 2015 Doc U Award for the Youth Jury's Favourite Film

Duration: 91 min
Languages: Perse, Dari
Format diffusion: DCP
Available versions: o.v., german, french, english subtitles

Original title: Sonita

Germany / Switzerland / Iran

Directed by: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami

Production: Tag/Traum / Intermezzo Films / RTS / SRG SSR / NDR / DR / Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami

In cooperation with: ARTE

Producers: Aline Schmid, Kerstin Krieg, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami

Executive producer: Gerd Haag

Image: Behrouz Badrouj / Ali Mohammad Ghasemi / Mohammad Haddadi / Arastoo Givi / Torben Bernard / Parviz Arefi / Ala Mohseni

Sound: Mohammad Salehi / Hadi Saed Mohkam / Ali Alavi

Original music: Moritz Denis

Original songs: Sonita Alizadeh / Sepandarmaz Elahi Shirazi

Arrangement: Guillaume Wuhrmann

Editing: Rune Schweitzer

Editing assistant: Jan Pfitzner

Sound editing and re-recording mix: Benjamin Benoit

Colorgrading: Philip Whitfield

Line producer TAG/TRAUM: Cornelia Kellers

Production accountant TAG/TRAUM: Alla Schubert

Production assistant TAG/TRAUM: Lukas Diekamp / Peter Gellert / Lena Mrachacz

Line producer Intermezzo Films: Catherine Muller

Production assistant Intermezzo Films: Patricia Trinca

Line producer Iran: Morteza Ebrahimi / Hosein Beshgard

Line producer Afghanistan: Ghodsieh Shahnematollahi / Sahra Karimi

Director assistant Iran: Liza Ghobar

Pre-editing Iran: Somaieh Haghnegahdar

Technical support and editing studio Iran: Mehdi Ganji

Script assistants: Reza Mohammadi Noori / Loghman Khaledi

Translations: Sina Seifee / Yara Elmjui / Maral Mohsenin

Credits design: Jean Deppierraz, Sapristi studio

Website: Jeff Gaudinet / Raphaël Arbuz

International saler: CAT&Docs Paris

Swiss distribution: Xenix Film