Access
I admire Mona and Jehane’s commitment to this documentary. Rafea acts so natural in front of the camera. Mona put so much effort into building a relationship with them. Mona said that She went about nine times to Jordan and she went to India three times in about two years (View London). Mona lived with the family and ate with them. Mona said “I played with the kids constantly, smoking cigarettes and drinking tea like everyone else, I think they kind of forgot it, and I blended in after awhile. But it definitely was not easy”(Stanger Than Fiction Doc). At first, she didn't even know the language they speak. The editor, Jean told us that Mona learned their dialect eventually, which is amazing.
I think it's really scary to communicate and blend in people who speak another language. Last summer I went to Tibet as a volunteer mandarin teacher. I lived under no running water and no electricity condition for only five days and I was crazy. I taught in a special school for deaf children. I knew very limited sign language. I don’t know any Tibetan. The other teachers in school didn't talk to me. My fear of being the only different one was so strong that I didn’t try to blend in at the beginning. Actually it’s not as hard as I imagined. Like Mona did, in the end I built a very close relationship with all my students with my bad sign language. I guess things always seem harder than they actually are.
After finishing the filming, Mona kept helping and caring about Rafea. Mona said “the most important thing for me now is to try to get Rafea to some festivals in the Middle East, so she can really feel the direct effect of how she’s affecting women” because Mona is worried that Rafea might be attacked for “had her veil off” and other untraditional things. Mona believes that seeing how she affected people is “all Rafea needs to stand on her own ground and fight”(Goldcrest).
Influence
The TV version of “Solar Moma” belongs to an eight episode documentary series by BBC called “Why Poverty”. It features directors from eight different countries telling eight different stories about poverty and how people are fighting it. The purpose of this series is not about promoting any specific way of changing poverty. BBC said they want raise a worldwide discussion about poverty. I like this series a lot. It’s free online and free to use.
I believe it can make people like us who are not in poverty think and ask. It encourages people who live in poverty to change. I believe Rafea is just one of many amazing women. “Solar Moma” is not only about poverty but also“ about family relationships, challenging social norms, and the power of expanding horizons”(Doc Geeks). Believing in the power of this film, Mona said that “we really want to take it to community centers, schools, and villages like Rafea’s, to as many places as we can” (Goldcrest). Mona is absolutely right. In the end, Rafea switches on the light and it glows. "Give your mother a round of applause," she says. The moment must have lightened up many other people. Jehane said that they did a screening in Egypt and some people from a very low-income neighborhood came up after the screening and said, “If I could just get this film to my mom, and my sister, and my grandmother, I just know that it would change their lives”(Stanger Than Fiction Doc).
完结
