Sisters in Law

For Muslim women in western Africa, married life at the hands of abusive husbands can be very hard . The community may not explicitly endorse such behaviour, but equally, they may not yet be ready to see it as criminal, an attitude which of course enables it to continue. Fortunately, the letter of the Cameroonian law promises equality to all, and this documentary follows the real life exploits of various female practitioners in the Cameroonian legal system as they attempt to secure justice for a number of women and children. What is notable (apart from the uplifting central story) is how, in spite of their informality, the courts are actually pragmatically progressive, if a case is actually bought. The program also gives a fascinating insight the whole Cameroonian life-style, which (aside from the awful crimes committed in the featured cases) seems amazingly emotional and joyous compared with that enjoyed by inhabitants of Europe or North America. And while I concede that this comment may betray naiveté on my part, this attitude appears to be captured in delightful pidgin-English they speak. Overall, this is a terrific little film, and much more fun to watch than you might imagine.

Sisters in law will be released theatrically on march 24th in Sweden. A good occasion for our Nordic friends to discover this original and thoughtful documentary. It was shown in Göteborg together with a retrospective dedicated to Kim Longinotto, "director in focus" of the festival. She gave a master class, very much appreciated, telling about her method as documentary filmmaker and told the audience about the special circumstances which led her to shoot Sisters in law twice : the first version got lost for good, so a second shooting was organized and the film turned out to be different at the end. A pretty awful problem happened, in this case, to create the possibility of a very strong movie.

This is a powerful documentary about domestic abuse in the Cameroon. The "sisters" in law are female lawyers and judges who in 2004 successfully prosecuted husbands for abusive treatment of their spouses and won one woman a divorce she desperately wanted through a Muslim council. It is rather long -- about two hours -- but fascinating in terms both of the individual plaintiffs and defendants and the lawyers who successfully represented them in court rooms presided over by female judges. It will leave you, as it left me, with many questions about exactly how this change occurred. How and when did women come to occupy positions of authority in the Cameroon? Have the several cases featured in this film had a significant effect on the treatment of women generally by their spouses? Was the granting of a divorce by a Muslim court, against the express wishes of the husband, a one time event? I'm not suggesting that the film makers could have answered these questions. They made the movie two years ago, not yesterday. And the movie they made deserves a wide audience.

It is no longer acceptable to really question much about Islam because if you do you are seen as being racist and perhaps part of a bigger anti-Muslim conspiracy. To me this lack of critical review from outside and (even more lacking) within the community is not a good thing because it leaves us with pantomime arguments with extreme viewpoints in the media (eg "islam is evil", "no it isn't", "yes it is"). What this film does well then is to present situations in Cameroon where the Sharia law dominant in the villages comes up against secular law – it doesn't push any anti-Sharia agenda but the viewer is left in no doubt that this type of rule as it is applied in these situations certainly offers little or no protection for women and children.

To gain insight into this conflict between the old and the new we follow two women at the top of the legal profession – prosecutor Vera Ngassa and senior judge Beatrice Ntuba as they deal with a selection of cases involving child abuse and domestic abuse. I'm not sure how much of the film is a real fly-on-the-wall affair and how much has been recreated for the cameras but my gut feel is that all or the majority is real since I don't believe that the change in the child Manka could have been done as well by an actress. Lacking commentary the film "simply" documents the cases and the people involved and it is this approach that has strengths and weaknesses. The strength is that it gives us an understanding for the issues but the downside is how disjointed and messy it can often feel. This doesn't mean that it is hard to follow (it isn't) but just that it is hard to get a wider understanding of the situation outside of these few specific cases and individuals. The film still works with this but to me the lack of context and wider information it didn't give me all I would have liked.

It easy to get behind the emotional cases made by Ngassa and adjudicated by Ntuba because they do apply common sense and indignation to their approach, however without a wider understanding I was bemused by how informal and emotional the process is. The film is quite uplifting to see these cases be won in a country where domestic abuse conviction are less than a rarity – but again it is a weakness that the film does not make it an ongoing thing that we appreciate the wider society that this is happening with. That said though it is still a fascinating affair and is moving and quite funny at times as well. Yes it is messy and perhaps lacks the bigger picture but it is still cheering and a welcome point of view to put alongside the view we get of life and attitudes in Africa.

Interesting documentary on women in the legal system in Cameroon – prosecutors and judges – and how they're slowly making progress dealing with the overwhelmingly male- centric society and laws.

It's impossible not to be touched watching them deal with cases of child rape, spousal abuse, child neglect, etc. And they do so with wisdom, dignity, and sometimes humor.

We also see their more human sides, in moments dealing with the children who come to them in trouble, as well as with their own children.

My problems were that there was a feeling that everyone knew they were on stage. The presence of camera feels like it's palpably changing behavior on all sides. Also, it feels – true or not – like we're not getting the whole story on some of these cases. It feels like there is tremendous selectivity going on to present these women as almost infallible heroes.

I also can't help being disturbed by Cameroon's justice system, which leaves the finding of guilt or innocence totally up to the judge, and based on what we see here, often there is scant evidence on either side, just a 'he said, she said'.

That may be the best a country like Cameroon can do. The money for things like real forensics is a million miles away. But it still makes the film's unabashed, unquestioning admiration of these clearly terrific women feel a bit glossy.

Non-the-less, I still quite enjoyed it, felt excited by the change these women represent, and was glad to be let into a world I'd otherwise know nothing about.