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E. Nina Rothe

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The Diaries, because sometimes life needs more. 

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The Venice Diaries: Sudabeh Mortezai's 'Joy' wins multiple awards, and conquers hearts, in Venice

E. Nina Rothe September 7, 2018

As we watch our nightly dose of immigration porn fed to us by the local news channels, particularly those of us who live in Europe we see row after row of young men stepping off boats and assorted vessels. We could be mistaken into thinking that they left their women safe at home, in their country of origin, the wives and girlfriends and mothers awaiting their return, as well as their paycheck. That's so far from the truth and if you ever held such a wrong opinion, 'Joy' by Sudabeh Mortezai will set you straight. 

In her beautifully shot and perfectly told film premiering in the Giornate degli Autori, Venice Days sidebar at the Venice Film Festival, Mortezai shows us the complex network of Nigerian women who virtually invisibly inhabit our European streets. 'Joy' is as much about the oldest profession in the world, the prostitution networks these women get sucked into and then, once they have paid off their debts, also manage and run in Europe, as it is about womanhood itself. We follow the story of these young women from the juju ritual they are subjected to at home, in Benin City Nigeria, to the streets of Vienna where they owe their traffickers the kind of money one wouldn't spend traveling around the world for a year and staying at the best hotels. 

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In Cinema, Festival, Interviews, The Diaries Tags Precious Mariam Sanusi, Joy, Sudabeh Mortezai, Joy Anwulika Alphonsus, Venice Days, Giornate degli Autori, Hearst Film Award 2018 for Best Female Direction, Europa Cinema Label Award, Label Europa Cinema prize, Nigeria, prostitution, Benin City, Human trafficking, Venice 75, Venice Film Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, Iran, Austria, Vienna, Klemens Hufnagl
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'Joy' by Sudabeh Mortezai, featuring Joy Anwulika Alphonsus 

'Joy' by Sudabeh Mortezai, featuring Joy Anwulika Alphonsus 

The Venice Diaries: Forget what you've heard, this year's festival is all about women's stories!

E. Nina Rothe August 27, 2018

So you may have read by now that the Venice Film Festival is being singled out for not having enough women filmmakers in their Competition line-up. One publication even went so far to criticize Italian culture as a whole, and they used two non-Italian reporters to write the story of course -- one the token male journalist. Because a single, lone, able woman journalist would not have been able to do the job?

Ever hear that saying "don't talk bad about my mama?" 

Anyway, while everyone is up in arms for yet another slight at womanhood, I say, get over it! I'm a woman, I'm Italian and I feel very well represented in Venice -- thank you very much. In fact, I have never seen so many beautiful women's stories, so much truth for our gender and so much care in telling those stories as I see in the various line-ups and sidebars this year at La Biennale del Cinema. But of course, you'd have to look beyond the media-selling headlines, watch deeper, dig in the sidebars too and know in your heart that great cinema was never about gender, rather about quality and vision. Just like it ain't about politics, even when the subject is political.

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In Cinema, Festival, The Diaries Tags women's stories, Venice Film Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, Competition, Orizzonti, Giornate degli Autori, French cinema, Indian cinema, Nigeria, Alberto Barbera, Joy, Sudabeh Mortezai, Joy Anwulika Alphonsus, Benin City, Africa, modern-day slavery, Europe, Human trafficking, freedom, Pearl, Elsa Amiel, Julia Föry, bodybuilders, female bodybuilders, Lea Pearl, Amanda, Mikhael Hers, Vincent Lacoste, Isaure Multrier, Memory Lane, Paris, terrorism, Soni, Ivan Ayr, India, Delhi, policewomen, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan
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