Written and directed by Helin Celik, an intimate portrait of three women, who barely survived the violence inflicted on them by men, who decide to stand up and speak out. An exploration of a woman’s inner life and in its most extreme, of the painful traces memory carries when the outer world is at an impasse.
It takes a remarkable amount of strength for women to come forward after surviving domestic abuse and vicious assaults, it takes even more to do it in a society that will shame you for it. Anqa quietly portrays the intense, long-lasting sacrifices that each of these women have made, to try and make a difference. It’s a portrait of loneliness, self-doubt, decayed self-worth and isolation. Helin Celik’s directorial style seeks to capture it in an everyday sense, to show what their existence looks like.
There’s advantages and disadvantages to that choice, it asks you to look deeper, to see the lingering trauma that bleeds into every facet of their lives, while not giving a lot to viewers directly. Only a few key moments of dialogue are included, meaning that it does move rather slowly and won’t work for everyone. However, for viewers willing to be patient and look beyond the visual, you’ll find moving, poignant layers.
Celik captures how these women have had to retreat into seclusion and question their abilities and their capability to look after their children and create a good life for them. The more you unpack, the more harrowing Anqa is, these women should be celebrated for their courage and resilience and instead they’re paying a steep price. It’s a strong portrayal of how this type of violence can destroy the spirit, and it takes a lot of time, support, energy and resilience to restore.
Anqa is an extremely intimate view into the lives of women who refuse to give up. While the stylistic choices may be divisive, it perhaps pulls back a bit too far and hearing from the women a touch more could have strengthened the documentary further. It’s highly contemplative and you can immediately feel its atmosphere of sadness and isolation. It’s a strong portrayal but it asks you to unpack its moments rather than handing them to you.
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