In Saodat Ismailova’s astonishing feature debut, a young teenager Bibicha, takes a vow of silence. Her grandmother, Khanjarmono, offers her shelter on her farm and her fashionable aunt, Sharia, arrives from the city. This seemingly simple story of four women over 40 days, becomes a meditation on tradition and the modern, and the power of a disappearing act of healing.
The film is absolutely visually beautiful, but it also makes you think about female histories and the ways our 'official' or 'formal' histories are so male-centric. Women rule the home, the myths and the legends, they transfer unique female knowledge to each other through generations. This wonderful female world has always been hidden away, undervalued and misrepresented. Ismailova brings this other reality of a female world forward in her film. She shows 4 generations of women communicating, sharing and reflecting while mostly being silent. In a world where a woman is expected to be quiet and obedient, choosing silence becomes an act of rebellion.