I Was Worth 50 Sheep

Many Afghan men are followers of radical Islam and honour the tradition of trading in wives, who are a generation younger and whom they sometimes don't treat any better than a dog. This is also the case with 16-year-old Sabere, whose father died when she was seven years old, which resulted in her being acquired by a relative. When she was ten, he sold her to a member of the Taliban who was forty years older. She became pregnant by him four times. "I often thought of suicide," is how Sabere recalls her married life with tears in her eyes. She was one of the few lucky girls who managed to escape this sort of life and find shelter in an asylum home for woman with a similar fate. Naturally, even after doing this, she is still not out of the woods. In his candid film, Nima Sarvestani follows the vain efforts of Sebere's mother and her husband to get her daughter a divorce. When it appears that things might finally be going their way, her stepfather receives threats because of his other daughter, 10 year-old Farzenah. He once promised her to another man in exchange for a herd of sheep. His side of the "deal" is not supposed to take place until after Farzenah's fifteenth birthday, but the groom decides that he wants her sooner…