Le dodici fatiche di Marwa

2005

The video shows a female hand writing a line in Arabic and one in English, from right to left and vice versa, without separing the hand from the paper, a continuous writing. Marwa describes her drama of being a woman forced to choose between the job she studied for, with which she would fulfill herself, and the married life her culture imposes her. A story like many others, the story of a sacrificed woman who remains by her husband's side. The reason behind this video isn't, however, the writing or the personal story, but a woman's yearning to self improvement, and its continuous efforts. Just where there seem to be some weaknesses, some points of frailty (woman, emigrant, Arab...) a womanly capacity to come up with new possibilities and resources is found; writing in two very different languages just symbolizes this.