The Judge Erika Cohn

A Sharia court with a female judge? It seems highly unlikely, but it exists: Kholoud Al-Faqih is the first female judge to join a Sharia court. Erika Cohn followed her during her first year as a judge and shows her extraordinary steadfastness, despite the setbacks and attacks.

The film explains in great detail how Sharia law works and what influence it has on the lives of women in Arab countries. Kholoud’s courage gives women the chance to have a woman defend their case, which makes a big difference when it comes to cases of domestic violence. But can she maintain her position when a change of guard comes? Director Erika Cohn was teaching and supporting NGOs in Israel and Palestine when she first met Kholoud. Her second feature film was created through unrivaled access to the local court. This critical cinematographic look at an unknown world shows an outdated Sharia that urgently needs to take a fresh look at the present.



Society Justice


This screening will be preceeded by the short documentary


No Jail Time
Lance Oppenheim VS 9 min.

“Sentencing videos” zijn een opkomend fenomeen in de Amerikaanse juridische wereld. Strafpleiters contacteren onafhankelijke filmmakers – of nemen soms zelfs de camera in eigen handen – om empathische minidocumentaires over hun beklaagde cliënten te maken.

(more information about short film)
Vertoond op editie(s) 2018
Screened at edition(s) 2018

Info

Directed by Erika Cohn
Palestinian Territories, US
2017 82 min.
Arabic en English
Subtitles: English

Programme

ConScience

credits
Director

Erika Cohn

Producer

Erika Cohn

Cinematography

Amber Fares

Editing

Sara Maamouri, Ken Schneider

Music

Omar Fadel, Jim LeBrecht

Contact info
Bekijk Contact info
(en screener)
(beschikbaar vanaf 20.03)