Jennifer Lawrence and her partner Justine Ciarrocchi from production company Excellent Cadaver attended the Cannes Film Festival over the weekend, where they promoted a new documentary, Bread and Roses.
The documentary follows the stories of three Afghan women as their freedom and basic human rights are stripped away under Taliban rule. This is a harrowing reality that all Afghan women have endured since the nation has fallen under the rule of the insurgent group.
The ability to work, attend school or even be in public without a male chaperone are all freedoms that have been taken away from Afghan women when the Taliban came into power after two decades of American occupation.
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Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence alongside her producing partner Justine Ciarrocchi teamed up with award-winning female Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani (A Thousand Girls Like Me) from Afghanistan Doc Film House to capture the lives and stories of these Afghan women.
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In chatting to the Variety, Jennifer says:
“It all just collapsed and a matter of days,”
“I was watching this from America, where Roe v. Wade was about to be overturned. We felt helpless and frustrated with how to get these stories off of the news cycle and into people’s psyches. To help people be galvaniaed and care about the plight of these women.”
In an article written by the BBC, Jennifer says it is devastating to think about the sudden loss of control Afghan women have endured. She says:
“This documentary was born out of emotion and necessity…”
“They [Afghan women] currently have no autonomy within their country. It is so important for them to be given the opportunity to document their own story, in their own way.”
Camera & video crews could not safely enter Afghanistan to film the documentary, nor could director Mani, who had been out of the country when the Taliban took rule. Bread and Roses, is comprised of footage filmed by three Afghan women on their cell phones, who document their harrowing daily experiences under oppressive Taliban rule.
According to the BBC, Mani says that achieving the balance of keeping the women safe and telling their story was not simple. There were reportedly several late-night conversations between herself, Ciarrocchi and Lawrence during the production process to ensure the women’s safety.
“They were there whenever I faced any issues or problems,” she says.
“When women unite, everything is possible.”
Photo by ANTONIN THUILLIER/AFP via Getty Images
Once the film team had successfully transported all women who had featured in the documentary out of the country and out of harm’s way, Lawrence & Ciarrocchi were comfortable submitting Bread and Roses for wider distribution, starting with Cannes Film Festival.
Met with tears at the Cannes, Ciarrocchi and Lawrence now aim to distribute the documentary to a larger audience globally to raise awareness and galvanise viewers to care about the flight of oppressed women in Afghanistan.
As quoted by BBC, Lawrence says:
“There’s not an end to this story…”
“…And you feel pretty much helpless when thinking about how to do anything about it. It’s a hard thing to market.”
“There is not much separating us from these other countries,”
“Democracy is all we have. and it’s sliding back. We have to keep our eye on the ball, which is individual freedoms.”
The documentary is currently for sale through Cannes.
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Feature Image: Getty
