The BBC documentary, depicting the aftermath of the brutal gang-rape and murder of Nirbhaya in 2012, has premiered in the US with Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep, Frieda Pinto and actor-director Farhan Akhtar in attendance as a show of support for the film banned in India.
Streep led a solemn opening of the 2012 gang-rape documentary ‘Storyville: India’s daughter’, describing the 23-year old victim as “our daughter” and emphasised that tolerance and acceptance of violence against women is worse than the brutality that dehumanises them.
Streep was joined by a star cast including actress Pinto, Akhtar, talk show host Tina Brown and former UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos among others at the US premier of the documentary produced and directed by Leslee Udwin.
“What is worse than brutality that dehumanises women? Tolerance and indifference towards it, acceptance that this is just the way things are. What is worse than rape, violence, cruelty? Tolerance for it. That’s worse,” Streep said to a packed theatre at the Baruch College of the City University of New York where the premier was presented by NGO Vital Voices Global Partnership and children’s development organisation Plan International.
A solemn Streep was joined by the other celebrities and activists on stage as they began the premier by lighting a candle in the honour of the young paramedical student who died days after she was brutally gang-raped by six men on December 16, 2012.
Streep, Pinto and Udwin referred to the victim by her actual name as they addressed the audience, which watched the hour-long documentary in stunned silence, gasping as it heard the accused Mukesh Singh recount the inhuman incident in an unrepentant tone.
Streep said that the victim’s name was not known for days after the tragedy and she was called “India’s Daughter”.
“For weeks after her death, she was nameless, she was known as India’s daughter. Tonight she is our daughter too,” Streep said.
Tonight we light the magic candle to honour the value of the girl’s short and promising life, Streep said and quoted the victim’s father who had said that in death, his daughter has shown light to a greater movement of achieving equality for women and ending discrimination.
Udwin, who received a thunderous applause at the conclusion of the documentary, said while the Indian government has banned the documentary, there are “many forward looking people in India who will call for change in response to this rape.”
“Tonight is the start of the global campaign for India’s Daughter to end violence against women,” Udwin said as she called on her family and her team on stage to thank them for the efforts that went into making the documentary.
She called on nations and its citizens to join hands to bring an end to discrimination and violence against women, stressing that the disease plaguing the society is not rape or trafficking but inequality.
“Let us imagine a world where women are autonomous without rape, violence, genocide. Now let’s go get that! Change of mindset is the biggest ask we can make. You can move mountains with a film? The disease is not rape or violence or trafficking, the disease is gender inequality. Let us not let one day pass without doing something to address gender inequality,” Udwin said.
