Bastards
Director: Deborah Perkin
Rating: 4/5
We have already been treated to some wonderful documentaries this year, and Bastards is another as Deborah Perkins returns to the director's chair.
Bastards is the second big screen documentary from the filmmaker, after making her debut with Just Read with Michael Rosen back in 2009.
Bastards follows Rabha El Haimer, an illiterate woman who took on tradition, her own family, and the Moroccan legal system for the sake of her illegitimate child.
Rabha was sent away at the age of fourteen to wed, however, the ceremony was not a legal one. She was abused and raped before managing to flee back to her family, pregnant with her husband's child.
Because her marriage was not legalised, Rabha's child is illegitimate, and is refused immunisations and not allowed to attend the best school.
This movie explores the stigma in being a single mother, in what is a rather shocking documentary about the treatment of women and illegitimate children.
Bastards is a powerful and funny documentary that exposes the contemporary issues facing Islamic women as never seen before.
Perkins has spent years researching and living with the subjects of the film in a Casablanca slum - and you can really tell.
Because she was accepted into this community, she has delivered a powerful, raw, and real documentary that really does take us into the lives of these incredibly strong-willed women.
We are taken in a community, and lives that we know very little about, and see first-hand the struggles and issues that they face on a daily basis.
However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, as there is slow change in the Moroccan system: in 2004, the Moroccan government made the first attempt to give women individual rights under Islamic Law.
This movie really is not all doom and gloom, it is about the strength and fight of women and grown 'illegitimate' children, as they continue to battle for themselves and what is right.
This is one of those documentaries that really will make your blood boil, but it is one that is riveting from start to finish.
Bastards is a film not to be missed this week, as Perkin delivers a film that is hard-hitting, touching and funny.
Bastards is out now.