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Struggling Against Odds

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 12/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Another Man's Garden"



Struggling Against the Odds



Amos Lassen



A young woman in Mozambique has aspirations that are in conflict with what is open to women in her culture. First Run Features brings us "Another Man's Garden", directed byJoao Luis Sol de Carvahlo which tells the woman's story. Carvahlo dedicates this film to the courage young women show as they go against the expectations of society. We know what it is like in the free world when a woman does not conform to traditional roles of gender but here we get to see what it is like in a part of the world that is rarely thought of.

A proverb in Mozambique says that sending a girl to school is the same as watering another man's garden. Our heroine, Sofia, is a young girl who is studying to be a doctor but she learns that it is not just hard work that her professor wants from her and her mother warns her that if she does not compromise her values and perhaps her health as well that she may not get a place at the university. What makes this so sad is that in Mozambique there are few opportunities and her loss of a place is irretrievable. Mozambique is a country ravaged by AIDS and it is corrupt and misogynistic. Attitudes toward women are not good and if Sofia does not manage to rise above what is the status quo there, her life will have little meaning. (As Americans, this is a very hard thing to imagine).

The struggle that faces Sofia is not hers alone as many African women find themselves in the same position. We see true and honest pictures of what women have to endure and we see it through their eyes--or at least through Sofia's.

This is not a pretty picture but it is an important one and it is a look at defiance in a place where defiance is not allowed. It is important for those of us who believe in equal rights for all without reference to gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or race or age.

Sofia faces distractions not only from her family but also from her boyfriend and she should be honored for that. We can support her by seeing this film.

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