Step One: Take a handful of raisins, a local custom, one girl, and one psychological consultation. Set them out on the screen. Display them for your viewers from the opening shots.
Step Two: Condense your narrative.
Every shot must serve the story-line : Our heroine is circumcised*, and she is on her journey to redemption.
How to show it ? Dress your heroine in red. Give her center stage. Reduce her whole being into one drop of blood. Even the irrigation of plants : let it be a symbol for dripping blood, for fertility. And why not even throw Aphrodite’s statue into the mix, just to bring your point home? Make sure you represent her struggle with every allegory in your possession.
Step Three: Simplify your story to the point of shallowness.
Do not give your viewer the chance to wonder!
Make your characters speak. Have them speak their truths – too clearly, almost painfully so. If it’s a psychological therapist, make her pronounce empty reassurances. If it’s a mother, make her give easy apologies. As for the heroine, make her confess her self-harm and anger openly.
Step Four: Thank the girls who have contributed their real stories. Mention them in Credits.
Step Five: Congratulations! You made your “Redemption movie”!
Now ponder whether your movie, in all its oversimplification, truly serves those girls it portrays.
Chef’s note:
*circumcised: does not mean genital circumcision. It refers to a Tunisian ritual in which small cuts are made on a girl’s skin, her blood is used to soak raisins, and the raisins are eaten. This is believed to preserve her virginity until marriage.
