“Women’s Month… We Watch By Their Choice”

March is the time when the world celebrates women’s achievements and highlights their issues and rights. The celebration of Women’s Month is associated with a long history of struggle and challenges. March 8th marks International Women’s Day, which originated in 1908 with a women’s demonstration in New York. Since then, this occasion has become an international day for women. Consequently, many countries have decided to extend the celebrations to include a whole month, during which the world reviews the achievements and challenges of women in various fields. Women’s Month aims to reaffirm and support demands for gender equality and to address issues such as violence against women and inequality of opportunities.

Therefore, in this segment of the Jesuit Cinema Club program for March, we present films chosen and presented by women from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. Each of them selects a film that reflects, in some way, her experience as a woman in the society she grew up in or the subsequent societies she moved to and lived in. Following the screening, there will be a discussion between them and the audience about the film.

Synopsis: In 1981 establishing a women’s national team was of no interest to the German Football Association. Therefore an invitation to the Women’s World Cup in Taipei went to the reigning club champions from the small town of Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. In the film the former players talk about the absurd conditions in which they had to fight for their great dream of playing football. Accompanied by historical footage – testimonies of a men’s world that today seem all the more anachronistic – the film tells a story that is about much more than sporting success, namely equality and recognition.

The film was nominated for 3 international awards and won 3 awards, including the Best Film award at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, as well as the Jury Prize from the Offside Festival.

• Genre: Documentary
• Production Country: West Germany
• Film Language: German
• (The film is accompanied by Arabic subtitles)
• Production Date: 2019
• Film Duration: 85 minutes
• The film is chosen and presented by: Isabel Peglau

The film is chosen and presented by Isabel Peglau, the program coordinator at the Goethe Institute in Alexandria. She regularly showcases German films in the “Montagsfilm am Goethe” program and organizes the “Goethe Filmweek” program as well.

“In selecting this film, I wanted a story that speaks of self-assertion and a sport that still struggles with inequality today. It was a long road to establish the first women’s national football team in Germany, which was only founded after the SSG 09 Bergisch Gladbach team won the World Championship in 1981. Until then, the German Football Association prohibited clubs from allowing girls and women to play on their fields because, as they claimed, ‘femininity disappears in the struggle for the ball.” – Isabel Peglau

Jesuit Cinema Club program coordinated and presented by: Aly Nagaty

Free admission without registration or prior booking.