Saving Face, a documentary about acid attacks on women in Pakistan directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
The film follows the story of two victims who have survived acid attacks, Zakia and Rukhsan. The heinous attacks left them with permanent physical scars but even worse mental damage which was only exacerbated by a flawed system where husbands, who are often perpetrators of the attacks are allowed to escape justice according to Pakistani law. Not only that, because of poor healthcare these women suffer even more.
Highlighted in the “Saving Face” documentary is the story of Fakhra Yonas, an acid attack victim who committed suicide after her ex-husband was acquitted of any wrongdoing leading to her taking her own life. One can hope that cases like this one are rare but they are not, as exactly the same story happens to hundreds of women every year in the country which is what inspired filmmakers, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge to make this crisis known to the world.
What is the motivation behind committing such crimes, how are perpetrators allowed to be acquitted and how do victims live with this injustice? These are all questions that Saving Face attempts to answer for which it won the 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.
