When
Salma, a young Muslim girl in a south Indian village, was 13 years old, her
family locked her up for 25 years, forbidding her to study and forcing her into
marriage. During that time, words were Salma’s salvation. She began covertly
composing poems on scraps of paper and, through an intricate system, was able
to sneak them out of the house,... » eventually getting
them into the hands of a publisher. Against the odds, Salma became the most
famous Tamil poet: the first step to discovering her own freedom and
challenging the traditions and code of conduct in her village.
As with her other work (Pink Saris, Rough
Aunties), master documentarian Kim Longinotto trains her camera on an
iconoclastic woman. Salma’s extraordinary story is one of courage and
resilience, and Longinotto follows her on an eye-opening trip back to her
village. Salma has hopes for a different life for the next generation of girls,
but as she witnesses, familial ties run deep, and change happens very slowly.