Just weeks before she won the Miss World competition, Linor Abargil was brutally raped in Milan, Italy. After she reported the attack in Israel and began to deal with the incident, Linor began her lifelong campaign to get women and men to speak out about their attacks. She approached Cecilia Peck, director of Shut Up and Sing to work with her on a documentary about the attack. The result was Brave Miss World.
Cecilia, how did the project come about?
“It came about when in 2009 I got a call from a friend. Actually, the director, Hugh Hudson, my friend who made the beautiful film Chariots of Fire, said, “This Israeli beauty queen is in Los Angeles. She’s looking for a director for a film she wants to make about surviving rape, and she saw your film Shut Up and Sing and she liked it and wants to meet with you.”
So I went to the meeting, and I sat down with Linor, whose story of courage and how she was able to at age 18 not only report what had happened to her but put a serial rapist in prison, win the Miss World crown and eventually go on to be a very empowered activist on behalf of others just made me feel like I would—it made me take the plunge and make a commitment to do the film. I ended up following her story and working on the film for the next five years.”
Did Linor work very closely with you on the project?
“Well, on the night that she was crowned Miss World, which happened only seven weeks after this very brutal, violent, traumatic kidnapping, stabbing and rape crime, she had to go quickly to represent her country in the Miss World competition. She was in trauma.
To her utter shock, her name was called out. We have the footage of her being crowned with tears streaming down her face, and she was vowing to herself at that moment that one day she would tell her story and reach out to other survivors of rape, because she felt that the rape crime and the crowning must have happened in such close proximity for a reason.
So she always wanted to do something, but it took her a long time to heal and get ready. It took her ten years, and then when she felt she was strong enough she reached out to her best friend and her manager, Motty, who’s in the film, and she said, “I want to make a film so that I can reach women all over the world, and I need a team of women to come with me.”
She initiated it, and I went to that first meeting with my filmmaking partner, Inbal Lessner, who’s the editor of the film and produced it with me. We then developed a concept for the film. It was a challenge to take a taboo subject like rape and try to make an epic narrative out of it, but that’s how it started.”
In terms of making the film, obviously because it’s such a difficult subject matter, did it take an emotional toll on you?
“Yes, yes, as it did on Linor and on all of us. I think it was the hardest on Linor. She thought she was ready, but discovered that telling her story and listening to the stories of other women triggered her own trauma over and over again. I think it did for all of us.
Yes, there were days that were very hard. There were months when Linor had to shut down filming and couldn’t go on. It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear every story, but every one of the women who spoke up in the film told us at the time and since how much it helped in their healing process to know that what happened to them could help someone else to feel that they’re not alone.”
Something that struck me about it was obviously if you’re involved with the project for this long you’re going to have an emotional attachment. Was it difficult for you to separate yourself from that?
“Well, documentary filmmaking is hard. There’s never—we spent thousands of hours writing grant requests, begging our friends for $1,000 for the next shoot. The whole thing is an act of perseverance and faith and belief. So it’s challenging on every level to make a film like this, from the subject to the funding to the years away from your kids and your family, but you feel like it’s a mission, like you’re meant to be doing this work and that it’s worth it and that nothing good comes easily.
Personally, I think all women, and many boys and men, are affected by some form of if not the pressure of sexual assault, rape, sexual violence. For me, I went to a university in the United States where all women are subject to unwanted advances, if not attacks, within a drinking culture, and for me at the time when there weren’t resources or
advisers you could turn to and say something happened. So this kind of work, whether it’s social work or documentary filmmaking, it always comes from a personal place. You always have to invest all of yourself, believe in it 1,000%, believe that it’s worth it. You know it’s going to be hard, and this one was the hardest one I’ve ever done but I believe the most important one.”
For the preparation involved for the film, did you research a lot of the psychology surrounding the rapist and the victim?
“Yes, we did months of research in preparation about rape, about how prevalent it is, whether victims can get access to justice, how law enforcement and justice systems function. When you speak about rapists, the issues are very deep-seeded. I think that that’s perhaps a different film. I think that rehabilitation programs have not been proven to be very successful. I think it comes from a deeply rooted psychological place.
I can’t say the film answers those questions, but the film goes deeply into what’s available for someone who’s survived an assault or a rape. Is there access to justice? Is it possible to heal? What does it take? And one of the answers is that the first step is in speaking up. You can’t heal if you keep it buried inside. You need to find a friend, a family member, a help line or a support system that you can trust. That’s the message of the film.”
Is there one story that’s stuck with you in particular that’s sort of been really upsetting since filming?
“Well, the most upsetting and traumatic story in the film is Allison in South Africa. I still can’t talk about it without crying, but she was stabbed. Her throat was slit. She was left for dead in a remote part of the South African southern coastline in the bushes, and she managed to keep her head intact with her neck, keep her insides in her stomach and crawl a mile and a half to the road. It’s so hard to talk about, and someone came by on the road that night and took her to an emergency room and she survived, and she’s now the most beautiful, eloquent spokesperson for other survivors in South Africa.
As hard and traumatic as her story is, it’s also the most inspiring one and the most hopeful one. From so many of the incredibly brave women who came forward, she was one who gave Linor huge motivation because Linor felt if you can do this, I certainly can.
Also in South Africa the girls in the Teddy Bear Clinic in Soweto, these young girls who had been victim of rape, often by family members, were so unashamed and so outspoken, and that was also incredibly inspiring to see that they had been given enough support to not feel shame.
That was also a reason I wanted to work with Linor, because she was also very unashamed. She said, “Why should I be ashamed? It’s not my fault. It’s his fault.”
And I thought that was a very powerful message to convey in a film and an important one. It sounds so simple, but it’s so important to let survivors know that it wasn’t their fault and that there is support for them.”
Joan Collins and Fran Drescher will be featured in the film. How did they get involved?
“Well, Joan heard about the film and she approached us and said, “I know that you’re doing this and I have something to say.” She spoke on camera for the first time about her rape. She’s so brave, and she’s so eloquent.
It meant so much to Linor because she’s the kind of person who people notice when they speak up, and Linor felt that it would enable the message to get to many more people, because Joan is in the film. It’s so moving when she speaks, and it happened to her when she was a young girl, the same age as Linor.
She was drugged and raped by an older man, and she felt so guilty about losing her virginity that she ended up marrying him and was in an abusive marriage for years until she could get out of it, but that story is not a thing of the past. So many women we’ve met along the way had the same story today.
Fran also heard about the film and offered to be of help. They’re both incredibly, incredibly eloquent and powerful and moving in the film.”
Would you ever consider revisiting Linor’s story down the line?
“Well, I do feel like this film is a lifelong mission. Films like this, they get inside you, and I don’t doubt that I will revisit this subject and the issue in one way or another.
I do work with Linor. I’ve been traveling with her and the film and speaking about it. We were together in Washington D.C. We screened the film on Capital Hill. We were invited to the White House to meet with President Obama’s advisor on violence against women, Linor, Inbal and myself.
I think the film is the way of continuing for generations to come, for her to reach out through the film to other women all over the world and so is the website. I think the website will eventually have an even bigger audience and following or as big as the film.
But also, yes, I will continue to travel, speak out with Linor and possibly continue to film, certainly for the website if not another whole documentary.”
Brave Miss World will be available on Netflix from May 29th. You can find out more information on their website and how to join the conversation here.
