Sonita (2015)

Two-time Sundance Film Festival award winner SONITA tells the inspiring story of Sonita Alizadeh, an 18-year-old Afghan refugee in Iran, who thinks of Michael Jackson and Rihanna as her spiritual parents and dreams of becoming a big-name rapper. For the time being, her only fans are the other teenage girls in a Tehran shelter. And her family has a very different future planned for her: as a bride she's worth $9,000. Iranian director Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami (GOING UP THE STAIRS) poignantly shifts from observer to participant altering expectations, as Sonita's story unfolds in this personal and joyful portrait. An intimate portrait of creativity and womanhood, SONITA highlights the rarely seen intricacies and shifting contrasts of Iranian society through the lens of an artist who is defining the next generation. (Women Make Movies)
"Especially when it hits a heroic third act, Sonita's saga does feel like a huge exception to what happens to so many women around her. But Maghami's film brings to an honest light the intangible emotional madness within these marriage traditions. "Sonita" puts a defiant face and expressive voice to a resistance that needs to be as loud as possible." - Nick Allen (RogerEbert.com)