2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Write a short summary of what happens in the film

We collaborated with Remie Akl a rising provocative female Lebanese visual artist to bring to life a video content. The video starts with a scene starring Remie and a group of other girls while walking on a Lebanese street, minding their own business and end up grossly referred to as Baklava by a random strange man. Through this scene we see how women are sexually harassed in such a case. We then dissect to the issue to uncover true frightening situations many women commonly experience, such as being stalked on the way home, getting sexually harassed in the doorway of buildings, dealing with harassers online, or living with an abusive male figure. We then move to explain how those women, despite being always in danger, tend to create safe spaces for all their surrounding.Thus, ending it with a call to create this safe space for all women.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

“Baklava” is a well-known Arabic type of sweet, and as much as this type of sweet is known in our culture as much as the name behind it, has been used part of the patriarchal culture by men to degrade women throughout the years. So, the common scenario in which women, minding their own business and going about their day, are sometimes grossly referred to as Baklava by strange sexist men. But the problem goes beyond everyday catcalling, which some seem to think is innocent fun, forcing many women to simply adapt to it. The problem also is that such cultural aspects normalized harassment. It Even allowed men today to use the country’s circumstances as an excuse to undermine the safety of women in the streets, in their cars, and even in their own homes which are sometimes transformed by the patriarchy into jails with domestic violence.