Writing Hawa
Najiba Noori & Rasul Noori / France, Netherlands, Qatar & Afghanistan / 2024 / 84 min
Three generations of Afghan women dream of freedom and change. A daughter's cinematic and personal letter to her mother takes a tragic turn when the Taliban returns.
After a lifetime under the Taliban’s ultra-conservative regime, Hawa was learning to read, write and start her own business as an adult. She was also breaking free from the domineering, 30 years older and increasingly demented husband she was married off to when she was 13 years old.
Hawa’s daughter Najiba is a filmmaker documenting her mother’s transformation. But in 2021, US troops leave Afghan soil and in a split second, the Taliban are back in power. Hawa’s 14-year-old granddaughter, who fled to her because of an abusive father, must be sent back to another part of the country so the Taliban won’t force her into a marriage. Najiba herself flees to France, where she writes letters to her mother and finishes the movie remotely.
Over the course of five years, ‘Writing Hawa’ introduces us to the struggle that Afghan women have to fight for just a little independence and freedom. A loving portrait of a mother and a touching, personal account of three generations of Afghan women whose dreams are shattered in an instant.