Pearl
Duration
Year
Theme
Language
Subtitled
French
49:55 min
2022
women's rights
Lithuanian
To be a woman, to be complete,
To have her pearl back between her legs.
Fos life and the body were ruled by her community, her father, her husband. To be submissive and silent, that is what was required of her. To affirm this power over her, she was inflicted the seal of submission with excision at the age of 6.
Fos never wanted to be this woman. Exiled in Belgium, she realizes the word “woman” deserves a different definition than what she has known, that a woman has the right to bodily integrity and to pleasure. She decides to get her life back and reclaim her wounded body. To do so she chooses to undergo a surgical reconstruction of her clitoris. Her story unfolds like a sound tale, Fos reveals herself, she takes us back to her distant past, to her forced marriage and to the day from which stemmed the rest of her life: the day her pearl was taken from her.
Directed by Yasmina Hamlawi
With Fos and her children, Martin Caillet, Fabienne Richard, Cendrine Vanderhoven
Editing Roxane Brunet
Mixing Joachim Glaude
Music composed by Manuel Hermia
Interpreted by Sigrid Vandenbogaerde
Produced Jackal Productions
Translation Algirdas Požėla
Subtitles Adomas Zubė
Animation Emilija Juzeliūnaitė
Yasmina Hamlawi
She is a doctoral student in international public law. Her work focuses on women's access to fundamental rights in a globalised world. From the Arab world to India, from Bangladesh to Iran, Yasmina writes about people and their struggle for life: social equality, migration, access to water and education, climate impact. During her reports, she decided to swap the pen for the microphone and made her first creative documentary "The Price of Exile". Through her radio creations, Yasmina continues to give voice to the voiceless and to deal with non-visible, almost unspeakable subjects. She explores sound territories to give strength and accuracy to the story. "Pearl", her second radio documentary, was awarded the URTI International Radio Grand Prix (2021) and won Best European Radio Documentary prize at the Prix Europa (2022).
