Welcome to our 13th annual curated list of thought-provoking and powerful documentaries, feature films and television series that delve into the issue of violence against women (VAW) in various ways.
Every year, we select films, documentaries, or TV series that depict and examine issues related to VAW which need more awareness, attention, and discussion. Our 2024 selection is a wide-ranging one that tackles everything from lesser-known types of VAW such as online sex trafficking, VAW in cults, and gender apartheid to unfortunately familiar issues like femicide and domestic violence.
As with our selections for the past couple of years, the majority of this year’s list comprises films and series that were released over the past 2 to 3 year and that are available on major streaming networks worldwide. There is also a selection of older releases which may be accessible by DVD or on more specialist streaming services. What many of the films and series have in common this year is that they examine what happens when women fight back against the abuse and if they are afforded the justice they deserve.
We hope that these films, documentaries and TV series not only make you think about gender-based violence in new ways but also inspire you to examine traditions and social mores and take action to stop VAW in your own community.
Introduction by Anushia Kandasivam. Written and compiled by Anushia Kandasivam. Additional research, curation, and content by Regina Yau.
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Film Selection #1: Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods (2024)
This documentary follows the BBC investigation into the allegations from 37 women of rape and attempted rape by Egyptian-born billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, the former owner of Harrods. Al Fayed was the owner of world-renowned luxury London department store Harrods until 2010 and used wealth and power to bully and intimidate women into staying silent after he had sexually assaulted them. His predatory behaviour included co-opting the store’s HR department to promote young women from the shop floor to work in his executive suite where they became easy prey for him. Many of his former staff, including security officers, now attest to knowing about or having strong suspicions of his vile behaviour. Many of the women who survived Al Fayed’s sexual abuse lived in fear, which prevented them from coming forward for many years. Today, some continue to be afraid of the consequences of speaking out against such a powerful man, despite the fact that he died in 2023. This documentary restores the voices of the victims who have decided to speak out about him.
Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
Film Selection #2: Burning Sun: Exposing the Secret K-pop Chat Groups (2024)
This eye-opening BBC documentary is about the 2019 Burning Sun scandal that involved several popular South Korean K-pop idols and corrupt police officials in a case of sex trafficking and gang rape which shocked the K-pop world and Korean society. The story is told by the two female journalists who investigated the horrific sex abuse that came to light after secret chat groups were exposed, and explores the high personal price they paid for their work. The documentary provides an excellent account and analysis of the case by giving the viewer a thorough look at how the secrets were exposed and the consequences of the investigation on the perpetrators, their enablers, and the culture of celebrity and South Korean patriarchy that allowed them to get away with their crimes with just a slap on the wrist. Crucially, it provides an in-depth look how the case affected women, from interviews with women who were raped by the Burning Sun’s customers to how the two female journalists who pursued the case were harassed, abused, and doxxed online by misogynistic K-Netizens and zealous fans of the idols at grave cost to their personal, physical and mental health.
Burning Sun: Exposing the Secret K-Pop Chat Groups is available to watch on YouTube.
Film Selection #3: Bread and Roses (2023)
Bread and Roses is an American documentary film about effects of the 2021 Taliban offensive on the women of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. The documentary follows three women whose lives were effectively ended when the Taliban took over – former government employee Sharifa who is forced into a tedious life indoors, dentist Zahra who was arrested and tortured for organising activists in her former practice, and Taranom who was exiled for her activism and is a refugee in Pakistan. It also shows the wider rallying of brave but under-resourced women and other activists, as women protest the closing of schools and continue to courageously speak out against the Taliban and for their rights.
This documentary is available to watch on Apple TV+
Film Selection #4: Citation (2020)
Citation is a Nigerian film that examines a sexual assault on a university campus. The story centres on Moremi Oluwa, a young and promising Master’s degree student, who dares to speak out after a celebrated professor at her university sexually assaults her. Broadly based on true events – and reflecting hard truths about attitudes towards the rape of women and girls in Nigeria and beyond – the film depicts an environment where rape culture has been normalised and where authorities are reluctant to take proper action. It also shows the difficulty victims and authorities have in uncovering the truth in an essentially “he said, she said” situation where the survivor is highly educated and therefore does not fit into cultural stereotypes of a rape victim. However, the story takes an empowering turn as it shows the rapist underestimating Moremi who uses her smarts and determination to tell her story despite social expectations and to see justice served.
Citation is available to watch on Netflix in selected regions.
Film Selection #5: Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror (2022)
Cyber Hell is about the Nth Room case, a criminal case involving cybersex trafficking and the sales and spread of sexually exploitative videos of women and girls on the Telegram app between 2018 and 2020 in South Korea. These types of illicit videos are called molka, and are a serious epidemic in the country (which is why there are two documentaries on this list that involve them). This documentary dives into the investigation behind the case, showing how women and girls were coerced and blackmailed into sending sexually explicit videos, which were then sold. It is a harrowing look at how technology facilitates violence against women and what it takes to find the perpetrators in the online maze. Given the recent and explosive deepfake porn crisis that involves boys and men across South Korea’s high schools and colleges in what many consider a second wave of the Nth Room case, this is an excellent documentary to watch to understand how the confluence of high technology and the misogyny of the deeply-rooted South Korean patriarchy combined to produce a massive case of online VAW.
Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror is available to stream on Netflix.
Film Selection #6: Laapataa Ladies (2023)
Laapataa Ladies (Lost Ladies) is a Hindi-language comedy-drama about two newlywed couples with surprisingly deep and culturally-specific commentary on domestic abuse and how the patriarchy creates a society and its institutions to fail women. On a long train journey home, while changing trains in a rush, one groom grabs the hand of the wrong veiled woman and hustles her off the train with him. The mistake is not discovered until they reach his village. Underlying the ensuing hijinks is a narrative of how women are lost in a world made for men – one bride was taught how to run a household but not to read or about the world around her, and the other bride wanted to continue her education but was forced to marry a violent man who just wanted her dowry. Yet hope for change is threaded through the film in the form of a young groom who, despite living in a world of patriarchal norms, wants equal opportunities for his wife, new friends who encourage the young women to exercise their rights, and a corrupt police station chief who will exploit villagers for money but refuses return a wife to her abusive husband.
Laapataa Ladies is available to watch on Netflix.
Film Selection #7: Maharaj (2024)
This historical drama is based on the Maharaj Libel Case of 1862 involving the Pushtimarga Sampradaya Hindu sect. Set in the Bombay Presidency in British India, the film is about a progressive thinking and social reformer named Karsan who publishes an article alleging hypocrisy among the leaders of the local religious sect and accusing them of straying from original teachings and of sexual depravity. The leaders use their power to abuse the women and girls who follow them, convincing them that sex with the leaders is a divine right. While the film does fall back on classic Indian movie tropes and occasionally relies on melodrama to incite appropriate feelings in the audience, it is an interesting exploration of belief and tradition versus logic within the context of violence against women, and the difficult fight for justice for victims in such circumstances.
Maharaj is available to watch on Netflix.
Film selection #8: Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
A “disquieting and ambiguous” film, Martha Marcy May Marlene has been described as a “the most realistic depiction of what a cult would be like, the difficulty of leaving a group and the recovery process” by a cult deprogramming expert. The film opens with Martha, a disturbed young woman, calling her sister to pick her up. Martha behaves strangely and has strange ideas about how to live. She also seems to be afraid for no reason – constantly looking over her shoulder and seeing men watching her. In flashbacks, the audience sees her life in a commune with cult leader Patrick, who calls her “Marcy May”. Life seems good at first but Martha/Marcy May is drugged, raped, subjected to psychological and sexual abuse, and gaslit about all of it. While her sister cannot understand her behaviour and Martha struggles to control her thoughts, it is clear to the audience that she is experiencing PTSD. The film not only depicts the lasting trauma of abuse on the victim but also the effects on their family, the difficulty victims have of articulating their experiences, and the fear they live in even after they leave an abuser.
Film Selection #9: Out of the Shadows: Born from Rape (2024)
This short BBC documentary explores the grief and shame of children born of rape through the eyes of Sammy Woodhouse, who had her son after she was abused and raped as a child. Alhough she loves him, the truth of how he was conceived is a shadow on their lives and he himself has many questions. Determined to break the taboo that survivors and their children live in, Sammy begins talking to other mothers and children all over the UK who are in similar situations, and discovers “remarkable people with heartbreaking stories of love and pain that have stayed hidden for decades” but who are ready to “throw off the shame and stigma of being born from rape, and finally be heard.”
Out of the Shadows: Born from Rape is available to watch on YouTube.
Film Selection #10: Palm Trees and Power Lines (2023)
A coming-of-age drama, this film starts as a languid depiction of a high schooler’s summer which gradually turns into an unnerving and unflinching look at grooming. Bored and lonely teenager Lea floats through the days until she meets a charming older man called Tom who appears to be empathetic, interesting, and interested in her – spouting lines that seem complimentary yet are laced with misogyny such as “You’re not like any girl I know”. The film captures the inanity and crudeness of teenage conversation contrasted with cool and sophisticated adult speak, as well as the horror and disillusionment of a groomed child, all without exploiting the teen actor (there is no nudity). As things progress to dangerous levels and Tom manipulates her into sleeping with other men, the film becomes heartbreaking because while Lea shows a flicker of awareness of what Tom is doing to her, she is ultimately trapped by him through his emotional manipulation and coercive control. The film makes it clear to the audience that Tom’s possessiveness is not romantic and that Lea is not mature enough to understand this.
Film Selection #11: The New Abolitionists (2023)
In this documentary, filmmaker Christina Zorich follows several Southeast Asian nonprofits as they work to rescue and rehabilitate people trapped by sex trafficking, and tracks their efforts in prevention and prosecution. The film makes it clear that the problem of human trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable people, mostly women and girls, is pervasive. It features testimonials from dozens of activists and each story represents scores, if not hundreds, of others like it. Zorich explores a range of stories showing how women and girls find themselves mired in forced prostitution – among them are women who are tricked by traffickers and girls who are sold by their families. The film also examines the unwillingness or inability of governments to take action against the problem. Zorich made the film because she realised that “acts of service, small and large, were required to fight this fight” and wanted to help raise awareness about human sex trafficking.
The New Abolitionists is available to watch on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+.
Film Selection #12: The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo (2020)
When 16-year-old Ruby Marisol Frayre was murdered by her partner Sergio Rafael Barraza in Ciudad Juarez, Barraza was given a light sentence and released in a matter of months because the Chihuahua prosecutor’s office could not prove the crime. That was when Frayre’s mother Marisela Escobedo began campaigning against the corruption of the authorities and the impunity of her daughter’s murderer. This documentary about Marisela’s activism which ended when she was assassinated during the protest she was holding in front of the Government Palace of Chihuahua spotlights a pervasive problem in Mexico – femicide and the reluctance of law enforcement and the judicial system to recognise femicide as a crime. The documentary shines a stark light on the complexities of the social and justice systems in Mexico, and the horror of the patriarchal status quo that keeps half the population living in fear.
The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo is available to stream on Netflix.
Film Selection #13: Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
This classic psychological thriller film is a somewhat controversial depiction of coercive control in an abusive marriage. Renewed interest in the film this year stems from comparisons to the screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s This Ends With Us, particularly regarding the stark differences in how both lead actresses addressed domestic violence in interviews. Sleeping with the Enemy is about a young wife escaping her abusive husband by faking her own death, starting a new life far away while dealing with the fallout from her traumatic past. In true thriller form, the husband finds clues that she is not dead and somehow turns up at her door to attempt to regain control over her. It is full of 90s thriller tropes and reviewers at the time called out its “exploitation formula where the victim can run, but she can’t hide”. However, the ending provides a cathartic twist where the survivor finds a way to exact revenge and rid herself of her abuser, and it is worth watching for the realistic depiction of the behaviour of abusive partners in stalking their victims and to compare how films about domestic violence have (or have not) changed over time.
Film Selection #14: The Wildflower (2022)
This Nigerian film is a riveting exploration of the different types of violence that women face at home and in society as told through the lives of three women who live in the same compound. They all experience abuse, sexual assault, and harassment perpetrated by people they know at home and at work. One day, one of them reaches her limit and decides to speak up about her experiences, thus throwing the status quo into disarray. The film depicts the harsh realities of domestic violence where excuses are made for the perpetrator and of rape culture where shame or fear of disbelief prevent victims from reporting sexual abuse and assault. Most of all, it shows women supporting each other through the trials and tribulations of pushing back against the patriarchy and provides a good lesson on how to listen to and help victims.
The Wildflower is available to stream on Netflix in certain regions.
Film selection #15: The Wonder (2022)
The Wonder has a distinctively British flavour with its literary feel, colonial guilt, gothic horror, and examination of religious belief. Adapted from the novel of the same title by Emma Donoghue, this is a story about Anna, a girl who is mysteriously possessed by divine grace and appears healthy despite not eating any food for months, and Lib, a no-nonsense English nurse commissioned by a pompous male committee of priests to examine the child. The film portrays various forms of trauma experienced by its female characters with subtle incisiveness: Lib has had a difficult past and succumbs to ritualistic self-harm; Anna is highly attuned to the adults’ emotions and believes she must be a human sacrifice for her sins; and Anna’s mother hides a terrible secret about family abuse and incest that she believes (whether or not because society has forced this belief on her) is Anna’s fault. In the end, salvation–divine or human–is possible and the film breaks the fourth wall, asking the viewer what they believe in and whether they are “willing to change, adapt and evolve”.
The Wonder is available to stream on Netflix.
Film Selection #16: You Are Not Alone (2024)
This Spanish documentary is about the La Manda rape case, also known as the Wolf Pack case which involved the gang rape of an 18-year-old girl during the San Fermin celebrations in Pamplona, Spain. This case is said to have triggered Spain’s #MeToo movement, and it certainly galvanised conversations and protests against sexual violence against women in the country. The Wolf Pack case drew public scrutiny and received international attention as it called into question the definition of rape under Spanish law. The filmmakers pointed out that because the investigators, prosecutors, and family members declined to speak publicly during the proceedings, there was space for the defence lawyers to plant seeds of doubt about the victim. It was this vacuum that they wanted to fill with the truth and “build a documentary powerful enough that it could make something invisible – the universality of sexual violence against women – visible.”
You Are Not Alone is available to stream on Netflix.
The picture used is a Creative Commons image:
Top Picture : Photo by John-Mark Smith from Pexels.