Enemies of Happiness 2006

This tense, claustrophobic documentary counts down the ten days leading up to the 2005 Afghanistan election. Its focus is Malalai Joya, a female candidate who had been banished from the Loya Jirga (Great Council) some years earlier for speaking out against the warlords who were covertly running – and ruining – her country. Western media have dubbed Joya “the most famous woman in Afghanistan”, but celebrity is a decidedly mixed blessing, leading to multiple assassination attempts and requiring a round-the-clock armed guard. Having inspired countless Afghani women to stand up for their rights, Joya now finds herself having to hide beneath the hated burka for her own safety. A magnet to desperate women, the film traces her attempts to help a teenaged girl who is being relentlessly pursued by a man old enough to be her grandfather. It provides a hair-raising insight into a world of alien gender relationships, in which the mere suggestion that husbands could look after their children for a couple of hours while their wives go to vote is met with howls of outrage. — Andrew Langridge