It’s obvious that there’s an inequality between the sexes, but while knowing the problem is helpful, it can be tough to figure out how to solve it. One solution is to withhold something from men that women have control over, and in some cases, that something is sex. Inspired by a real life sex strike in Turkey over the water supply, The Source makes the strange choice to adapt Greek comedy Lysistrata in an unspecified North African town instead. But strange choice aside, the script takes the premise and expands it not just to address the initial war and water issues, but also to expound on many more issues tied to inequality such as women’s literacy, domestic labor, as well as domestic violence. The Source is unsubtle, but the cast’s performances make the film an interesting Lysistrata adaptation.
A comedy/drama set in a village and centered on a battle of the sexes, where women threaten to withhold sexual favours as long as the men refuse to install a water pipe.
In an unspecified village in North Africa, the women of the town are assigned to fetch water all the way from a remote well atop a mountain. One day, they decide to go on a sex strike to change this.
The location choice. Given the French production, it might have made more sense logistically to set it in a place closer to home, and to its credit they do match its cast and production design. Also, given that this was during what journalists called the Arab Spring, it made sense that there was more interest in women’s liberation in the area as well. That being said, it definitely feels like it’s centered more from the Western idea of liberation, but there’s still a certain universality that makes Lysistrata still work.
Hear me out: have we considered doing this everywhere?
Berlin
1 nomination
Sundance
1 nomination
