Big Little Women

Using my own story, I show two sides – which are mirror images – of the patriarchal system.

Three generations of women rebel against patriarchal prohibitions. In this cinematic letter, Swiss-Egyptian film director Nadia Fares pays tribute to her father as she recounts 75 years of women’s struggles both in Egypt, her father’s country, and in Switzerland, her mother’s country, where she grew up.

Film, Documentary
October 2022
Countries: Switzerland / Egypt
Duration: 86 min.
World Sales: Adler & Associates, Burbank, CA
Distribution: First Hand Films

Press
Nadia Fares: ‘My father was the victim of a Swiss patriarch’

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From the Director / Nadia Fares

“In form my film appears to be a tribute to my father but in fact I am honoring the courage of these women fighting for equal rights in both the East and the West. By marrying an Egyptian and African man, my mother broke a taboo that was still very strong in Switzerland in the 1950s and 1960s. She paid for this transgression when my maternal grandfather, the Swiss patriarch of the story, conspired to have this undesirable husband deported, tearing apart my parents and my whole family. In Switzerland as in Egypt, a patriarch often has the authority to crush the fate of the women in his family. Using my own story, I show two sides – which are mirror images – of the patriarchal system.”