A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015)

Wonderful character development!

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" is a 39-minute documentary from last year written and directed by female Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. With this one here, she already won her second Oscar after "Saving Face", a documentary short film that centers around the mutilation of females in the Middle East. And in this one here, her newest project, the subject is once again the humiliation of and discrimination against females in the Middle East. This time, the subject is a young woman named Saba who almost died at the hands of her (seemingly) beloved ones. This film is about honor killings, and in particular about a woman who was really lucky to survive it and we find out why she still manages to forgive the people who want her dead. It is a touching subject for sure and an emotional movie at times, but I personally felt that it delivered nothing really new beyond the fact that everybody (with an open mind) knows about, namely how women in the Islamic world have hardly any rights, except the right to die when they don't strictly obey to what the men in their lives have in mind about them. It's a solid watch, but an Oscar may be a bit too much I guess. I still recommend checking it out. Oh yeah, and make sure you got subtitles unless you're fluent in Panjabi.

We follow a lovely, and at the same time incredible tough, 18 year old girl (Saba) who survives a murder attempt carried out by her father and uncle.Her crime is to have fallen in love with the boy that her family wanted as her husband. A new decision about marriage is taken but Saba follows her heart instead of her fathers rules and runs off and gets married.This act of independence is so hideous and dangerous that the only thing that can restore the family's honor is to kill her. She survives and through interviews with her, the police, a lawyer and family we start to get a picture of how women are looked at in a society that are governed by feudal laws.Especially the interview with her father and uncle in prison makes us understand that daughters should be considered being in eternal debt to their father who has worked so hard to sustain their lives. If she gets "meal three times a day" then she shouldn't ask for more.Womens rights are so neglected that if an honor killing is committed and the killer afterward are forgiven by his nearest family - then he walks free. So if Saba forgives her father then he will walk free and so the suspense starts. Will she do this or not? I will not spoil the last part of the story for you but just recommend the movie for being more than politic correct.When you see Saba together with her newly wedded husband you simply cannot understand that this marriage is looked upon as a crime.The happy end is that the movie has gotten so much attention that a fund raising has gotten the couple enough money to buy their own land./Simon

I am fond of watching movies but its all about entertainment; nothing for to know the reality of life , when I watch A girl in the river " I felt a pain in my heart and tears in my eyes because we had no idea of those people whom are living with us but not living with life!Its a great movie against gender discrimination in our tribal traditions and some how fake Islamic scholars.These all traditions are against the Qurran & Islam.In our society there are so many other customs and values to banned the women to show their natural abilities and talent in public working field. Now a days its little bit easy to face the aggression of right wing and credit goes to those powers whom stop the Talban thoughts and trying to make Pakistan a modern liberal country where every could be live without gender, religion, language, cast, status and racial discrimination. I want to see my country a beautiful and piece full place where we could enjoy art, film, games, music,religion values with beautiful family units.

This film is set in Pakistan and is about so-called 'honor killings'--when families murder their own daughters in order to save face with their neighbors. The particular subject of this film is a young lady named Saba. Saba married a man despite her family not giving her permission and her father and uncle dealt with it by shooting her and dumping her into the river. However, Saba's case is unusual because she actually survived the gunshot to her face and the film follows the case through the Pakistani court and to its ultimate resolution...or lack of resolution. The film is hellaciously depressing but fortunately the gunshot wound isn't as horrible to see post-surgically as you might imagine and Saba is rather inspiring because of her inner strength. It's also an amazing film because everyone talks so openly about what occurred and the father seems incredibly proud of his actions and by the end of the film he is elated that he maintained his sense of honor by trying to murder his daughter. By the way, if you are curious, the filmmakers and folks they interviewed were careful to reiterate that these honor killings are not in any way approved of in the Koran but are more cultural than religious in nature.UPDATE: This film did take the Oscar for Best Documentary Short.