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Quest for honor

A filmmaker investigates

In an area of Kurdistan where Iran meets with Turkey and Iraq, a woman’s body is found, her frozen hand still grasping her hair in the agony of death. A lifeless body, abandoned in the Oriental Wild West. After a call is placed to the local Women’s Media Center, Runak Faraj, the center’s leader, and her colleague Kalthum Murad Ibrahim are requested to join local Ranya Police Chief Abudullah at the crime scene. It turns out that the woman is named Nesrin, a young widow dispossessed of her children who has no apparent family close by. Her mother is dead and her father living abroad. No one cares for her, and no one knows who murdered her.

While they are not yet prevented, honor killings are more talked-about today than they were in the past and people like Mary Ann Smothers Bruni (featured image), a first-time filmmaker, are trying to shed light on the tragic aftermaths of mankind’s most brutal and reprehensible traditions. As it were– and as is often the case when filmmakers venture into this part the world–the stories behind the story are worthy of a documentary all by itself.

The IFC Film Center in New York and Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood will be screening Quest for Honor on August 6 and August 13th, respectively.