29/01/2007

After winning the Silver Wolf Award at Amsterdam’s IDFAs last December, Enemies of Happiness, co-directed by Eva Mulvad and Anja Al Erhayem, also picked up the World Cinema Jury Prize, one of the top awards given out last Saturday during the closing night of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Enemies of Happiness, which beat 15 other contenders in the world cinema competition-Documentary programme at Sundance, tells the story of Malalai Joya, a 28-year old Afghani woman who redefined the role of women and elected officials in her country with her historic 2005 victory in Afghanistan’s first democratic parliamentary elections in over 30 years.

Danish filmmaker Mulvad graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 2001. She said about Enemies of Happiness, her first feature documentary: “This film was made to tell another story from one of the world’s most talked-about regions – Afghanistan. The stories we hear are always full of bombs, torture and terrorists, stories full of apprehension that create distance: between ‘us’ and ‘them’…’. The world is not about villains who lurk outside waiting for us. The world is more than that, full of everyday people who fight everyday battles for their and others’ right to life, dreams and happiness”.

The documentary was produced by Helle Faber for Bastard Film with support from the Danish Film Institute, DR TV, Danida, the Danish Ministry of Education, YLE TV2 Documentaries in Finland, NRK TV in Norway and the Nordic Film & TV Fund. International sales are being handled by TV2 in Denmark.