Banaz: A Love Story Synopsis
In a brutal honor killing committed by her family, Banaz Mahmod, a young British Kurdish woman in London, warns law enforcement of the threat to her life with no avail. Only too late, police efforts brought her killers to justice.
Directed by Deeyah Khan in conjunction with Fuuse.
Banaz: A Love Story was an official selection of the 2016 WVN Online Film Festival.
About the Filmmaker
Deeyah Khan is an international music producer and activist turned filmmaker, who has herself been subject to honor-related abuse and threat.
It was Deeyah’s love for the story, for Banaz, for Bekhal, and for Caroline, and for raising awareness of the issue of honor killing, which drove her to spend four years making this harrowing and deeply emotional film.
Despite running out of funding long before the project’s completion, Deeyah formed an intimate bond with all the key characters, which plays out onscreen in astonishing scenes of confession and testimony.
More from the Filmmaker
Banaz Mahmod was murdered by her own family, in an honor killing. This film tells Banaz’s story, in her own words, for the first time and tells the story of the extraordinary police team who refused to give up, and finally brought her killers to justice.
It was a case which shocked the entire world and received enormous international press coverage; but until now, the voice of Banaz herself has never been heard.
As the result of four painstaking years gaining the trust and cooperation of the extraordinary police officers who solved the case, the film contains heart-breaking footage of Banaz herself, detailing the horrors she was facing and accurately predicting her own brutal murder.
The footage, which has never before been seen and has been obtained by the filmmakers for the first time, displays the warmth, beauty, and courage of Banaz.
Despite the horror, what emerges is a story of love. Banaz is a symbol of horror and hope in the fight to overcome oppression and outdated, abominable cultural practices, practices which claim the lives of thousands of other women like Banaz every year.
About the Collaborator
Based in Oslo and London, Fuuse is an independent media and arts production company that tells the stories of those often silenced or ignored by the media. Fuuse exists to make heard the voices of women, people from minorities, and third culture kids, to encourage debate, and to celebrate diversity.
Over the past few years, Fuuse has reached audiences of millions across more than 25 countries. Their first-ever documentary film Banaz: A Love Story won an Emmy and Peabody award.
The creative expression of Fuuse’s founder Deeyah Khan, a self-described “third-culture kid in a western country”, informs every aspect of what the company does. Fuuse is about telling diverse stories, across multiple platforms, for the widest audience possible.
