Bread & Roses
Vital subject matter provides few revelations in a piecemeal documentary produced in secret under the shadow of the Taliban.
Image courtesy of Dogwoof/AppleTV+.
As women around the world are finally discovering an equality unheard of in history, backward steps are still being taken. Today, there are 29 countries in the world with female leaders, but in Afghanistan a woman is not allowed to display her face in public. And yet the very essence of communication is conveyed through the mouth, eyes and facial expression – so in these countries women do not have a voice. When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the party reneged on many of its promises regarding women’s rights, and forbade women to attend school and university or to even work, forcing them to stagnate at home. However, many younger women, who had become used to a freer society in the Islamic Republic, took to the streets in their thousands demanding “bread, work and freedom!” Hundreds were subsequently arrested, tortured or killed; many are still missing.
Documenting such an oppressive regime, particularly by a female filmmaker, would seem to be virtually an impossible task. While the Egyptian director and journalist Ibrahim Nash’at achieved much in his fascinating, insightful Hollywoodgate, he was a man tinkering with compromise. For Sahra Mani, the stakes were higher and the opportunities harder. Thus, her film is largely composed of women venting their spleen in private, and of shaky street confrontations shot covertly on mobile phones. This hardly makes for gripping cinema, and Mani is not a natural stylist or storyteller. One suspects that were it not for Jennifer Lawrence’s involvement as a producer, Bread & Roses would not have made it onto such a major streaming platform as Apple TV+.
Nevertheless, it is an insider’s story told with passion and for all its faults, the film needs to be discussed. There are just a handful of characters, the most outspoken of whom, the activist Taranom, describes the Taliban as, “the most depraved people on Earth.” There are stories of beatings, and we can but gasp as the older generation closes ranks, accusing their warrior children of bringing shame on their families. And thus it was always so. With the sound of constant gunfire in the distance, the women concoct slogans, running the gamut from “education is our right!” to “misogyny is a programme, hijab is an excuse.” And yet perhaps the most pungent note was sounded when one woman, stranded behind closed doors, stated that the hardest thing was learning “to pass the time.”
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Dir Sahra Mani, Pro Sahra Mani, Jennifer Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi, Ex Pro Malala Yousafzai, Ph Abdul Sami Murtaza, Ed Maria Mavati and Hayedeh Safiyari, Music Masoud Sekhavat Doust.
Excellent Cadaver-Dogwoof/AppleTV+.
88 mins. USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 22 November 2024. Cert. 15.
