A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
	Film poster
Directed by	Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Produced by	Tina Brown
Production; companies	SOC Films; HBO Documentary Films
Distributed by	HBO
Release date	October 28, 2015;
Running time	40 minutes
Country	US/Pakistan
Languages	English, Punjabi

A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (Urdu: دریا میں ایک لڑکی: معافی کی قیمت) is a 2015 documentary film directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy about honor killings in Pakistan. The film is produced by Tina Brown and Sheila Nevins in collaboration with HBO Documentary Films.^[1] A Girl in the River was edited by Geof Bartz, A.C.E. The documentary earned widespread critical acclaim. A Girl in the River was shortlisted with ten other documentaries from 74 entries submitted to 88th Academy Awards in Documentary Short Subject category,^[2]^[3] which it won.^[4]

Synopsis

The documentary follows the story of a nineteen-year-old girl who survives an honor killing attempt by her father and uncle.^[5] The protagonist has a solid stance on not forgiving her attackers, but the public pressures her into forgiving. By doing that, the attackers are freed and can return home.^[6]

Release

The film was released on October 28, 2015, and had its worldwide premiere on HBO on March 7, 2016.^[7]

Reaction

The movie received mixed reviews in Pakistan.^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17]^[18]^[19]

It won the Oscar for Best Documentary and convinced the Pakistani government to review its laws on honor killings.^[20]

Awards and nominations

Awards
Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipients and nominees	Result
Academy Award	February 28, 2016	Best Documentary Short	Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy ^[21]	Won

References

^ "Sharmeen's documentary shortlisted for Oscar nomination". Arab News. October 28, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
^ "10 DOC SHORTS ON OSCAR'S 2015 SHORTLIST". Oscars.org. October 26, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ "'A Girl in the River': Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's new documentary shortlisted for Oscar". Natalie Kojen. the News Teller. October 27, 2015. Archived from the original on October 28, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ Johnson, Zach (January 14, 2016). "Oscars 2016 Nominations: Complete List of Nominees". E! Online. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
^ "sharmeen obaid chinoys a girl in the river shortlisted for Oscar nomination". Daily Pakistan. October 26, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ "'A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness' Summary & Analysis - Our Own Reflection | DMT". Digital Mafia Talkies. 2021-04-28. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
^ "Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's A Girl in the River shortlisted for Oscar". The Express Tribune. October 27, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
^ "After Oscar Win, Pakistani Filmmaker Sees Online Backlash Over 'Honor Killings'". NBC News. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
^ "Why Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy made A Girl in the River". 15 March 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ "Our distorted sense of 'honour'". Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ "Oscar-nominated documentary about "honor killings" exposes filmmaker to witch hunt". 24 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ "You have done us proud, Sharmeen! - The Express Tribune". 27 February 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ "Pakistan acid victims try to block Saving Face film". BBC News. 23 May 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ "Social media reacts to Sharmeen Obaid's second Oscar win". 29 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ "A Powerful Documentary About Pakistan's Honor Killings". The New Yorker. 6 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ Clark, Alex (14 February 2016). "The case of Saba Qaiser and the film-maker determined to put an end to 'honour' killings". The Observer. Retrieved 4 January 2017 – via The Guardian.
^ writer, Raza Habib Raja Freelance; Student, PhD (19 April 2016). "Sharmeen Chinoy, Malala and the international image of Pakistan". HuffPost. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ "Pakistan: The Shame Of It All - Newsweek Middle East". 24 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ "Dailytimes - Review: A Girl in the River - The Price of Forgiveness". 4 April 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
^ "Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy wins second Oscar Award". Daily Pakistan Global. 29 February 2016.
^ "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" winning Best Documentary Short-Oscars on YouTube

External links

Official website
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness Archived 2022-01-26 at the Wayback Machine on HBO
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness at IMDb

[1] "Sharmeen's documentary shortlisted for Oscar nomination". Arab News. October 28, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2015.

[2] "10 DOC SHORTS ON OSCAR'S 2015 SHORTLIST". Oscars.org. October 26, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.

[3] "'A Girl in the River': Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's new documentary shortlisted for Oscar". Natalie Kojen. the News Teller. October 27, 2015. Archived from the original on October 28, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.

[4] Johnson, Zach (January 14, 2016). "Oscars 2016 Nominations: Complete List of Nominees". E! Online. Retrieved January 14, 2016.

[5] "sharmeen obaid chinoys a girl in the river shortlisted for Oscar nomination". Daily Pakistan. October 26, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.

[6] "'A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness' Summary & Analysis - Our Own Reflection | DMT". Digital Mafia Talkies. 2021-04-28. Retrieved 2021-04-28.

[7] "Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's A Girl in the River shortlisted for Oscar". The Express Tribune. October 27, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.

[8] "After Oscar Win, Pakistani Filmmaker Sees Online Backlash Over 'Honor Killings'". NBC News. Retrieved 5 January 2017.

[9] "Why Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy made A Girl in the River". 15 March 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[10] "Our distorted sense of 'honour'". Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[11] "Oscar-nominated documentary about "honor killings" exposes filmmaker to witch hunt". 24 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[tribune.com.pk-12] "You have done us proud, Sharmeen! - The Express Tribune". 27 February 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[13] "Pakistan acid victims try to block Saving Face film". BBC News. 23 May 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[14] "Social media reacts to Sharmeen Obaid's second Oscar win". 29 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[15] "A Powerful Documentary About Pakistan's Honor Killings". The New Yorker. 6 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[16] Clark, Alex (14 February 2016). "The case of Saba Qaiser and the film-maker determined to put an end to 'honour' killings". The Observer. Retrieved 4 January 2017 – via The Guardian.

[17] writer, Raza Habib Raja Freelance; Student, PhD (19 April 2016). "Sharmeen Chinoy, Malala and the international image of Pakistan". HuffPost. Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[18] "Pakistan: The Shame Of It All - Newsweek Middle East". 24 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[19] "Dailytimes - Review: A Girl in the River - The Price of Forgiveness". 4 April 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2017.

[20] "Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy wins second Oscar Award". Daily Pakistan Global. 29 February 2016.

[21] "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" winning Best Documentary Short-Oscars on YouTube

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v t e Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film
1941–1975	Churchill's Island (1941) No Award (1942) December 7th (1943) With the Marines at Tarawa (1944) Hitler Lives (1945) Seeds of Destiny (1946) First Steps (1947) Toward Independence (1948) A Chance to Live / So Much for So Little (1949) Why Korea? (1950) Benjy (1951) Neighbours (1952) The Alaskan Eskimo (1953) Thursday's Children (1954) Men Against the Arctic (1955) The True Story of the Civil War (1956) No Award (1957) Ama Girls (1958) Glass (1959) Giuseppina (1960) Project Hope (1961) Dylan Thomas (1962) Chagall (1963) Nine from Little Rock (1964) To Be Alive! (1965) A Year Toward Tomorrow (1966) The Redwoods (1967) Why Man Creates (1968) Czechoslovakia 1968 (1969) Interviews with My Lai Veterans (1970) Sentinels of Silence (1971) This Tiny World (1972) Princeton: A Search for Answers (1973) Don't (1974) The End of the Game (1975)
1976–2000	Number Our Days (1976) Gravity Is My Enemy (1977) The Flight of the Gossamer Condor (1978) Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979) Karl Hess: Toward Liberty (1980) Close Harmony (1981) If You Love This Planet (1982) Flamenco at 5:15 (1983) The Stone Carvers (1984) Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements (1985) Women – for America, for the World (1986) Young at Heart (1987) You Don't Have to Die (1988) The Johnstown Flood (1989) Days of Waiting (1990) Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment (1991) Educating Peter (1992) Defending Our Lives (1993) A Time for Justice (1994) One Survivor Remembers (1995) Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien (1996) A Story of Healing (1997) The Personals (1998) King Gimp (1999) Big Mama (2000)
2001–present	Thoth (2001) Twin Towers (2002) Chernobyl Heart (2003) Mighty Times: The Children's March (2004) A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (2005) The Blood of Yingzhou District (2006) Freeheld (2007) Smile Pinki (2008) Music by Prudence (2009) Strangers No More (2010) Saving Face (2011) Inocente (2012) The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (2013) Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 (2014) A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015) The White Helmets (2016) Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (2017) Period. End of Sentence. (2018) Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl) (2019) Colette (2020) The Queen of Basketball (2021) The Elephant Whisperers (2022) The Last Repair Shop (2023)

v t e Honor killing events
chronological, incomplete list
Events	Isabella di Morra (1545/1546) Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy (1825) Ernesto Balmaceda Bello (1906) Tursunoy Saidazimova (1928) Nurkhon Yuldashkhojayeva (1929) Tina Isa (1989) Rukhsana Naz (1998) Surjit Athwal (1998) Tulay Goren (1999) Samia Sarwar (1999) Pela Atroshi (1999) Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu (2000) Fadime Şahindal (2002) Nitish Katara (2002) Anooshe Sediq Ghulam (2002) Heshu Yones (2002) Shafilea Ahmed (2003) Hatun Sürücü (2005) Samaira Nazir (2005) Gazala Khan (2005) Banaz Mahmod (2006) Hina Saleem (2006) Du'a Khalil Aswad (2007) Manoj and Babli (2007) Sadia Sheikh (2007) Aqsa Parvez (2007) Amina and Sarah Said (2008) Morsal Obeidi (2008) Shailendra Prasad (2008) Shafia family murders (2009) Sandeela Kanwal (2008) Ahmet Yıldız (2008) Ayman Udas (2009) Noor Almaleki (2009) Gelareh Bagherzadeh and Coty Beavers (2012) Kohistan honour killings (2012) Rania Alayed (2013) Farzana Parveen Iqbal (2014) Qandeel Baloch (2016) Samia Shahid (2016) Pranay Kumar (2018) Israa Ghrayeb (2019) Romina Ashrafi (2020) Ali Fazeli Monfared (2021) Babak Khorramdin (2021) Mona Heydari (2022) Tiba al-Ali (2023)
Related topics	List of honor killings in Iran Honour killing in Pakistan Honor-related violence in Sweden Honor killing in the United States Guarding the Secrets (1995 book) Forbidden Love (Honor Lost) (2003 book) Forbidden Lies (2007 film) In the Name of the Family (2010 film) When We Leave (2010 film) Zenne Dancer (2011 film) Banaz: A Love Story (2012 film) Honor Diaries (2013 film) Honour (2014 film) A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015 film) Honour Killing (2015 film) Murdered by My Father (2016 film) A Wedding (2016 film) Baaghi The Sensational Life & Death of Qandeel Baloch (2018 book) A Regular Woman (2019 film)