Presented in a world premiere in the Solothurn Film Festival and currently battling it out for the Audience Award, Freedom – Shewit’s Destiny by Swiss director and journalist Anne-Frédérique Widmann tells the story of a young woman called Shewit who’s fled her homeland, dreaming of a better future in Switzerland, a country she sees as the promised land. For ten years, showing empathy and respect, the director follows her heroine very closely, as if the camera were an integral part of Shewit’s world. From her arrival in Geneva following a hope-fuelled journey which leaves a lasting mark on her body and on her mind, to the moment she obtains her long-awaited apprenticeship contract, Anne-Frédérique Widmann captures Shewit’s little victories, but focuses primarily on the obstacles blighting the protagonist’s life.

To escape an oppressive life which is more like a prison and to move on from her torturous past, Shewit flees Eritrea. Over the course of the journey to Switzerland, which she embarks upon alone, the protagonist literally risks her life. At fifteen years old, following a two-year journey which saw her suffer unspeakable violence, Shewit arrives in Switzerland, a country which is the repository for all her hopes and dreams, and in which she wants to taste the freedom of being who she really wants to be, perhaps for the very first time in her life. Seven years later, with no visa and threatened with expulsion, Shewit perseveres and fights to become a free woman who can finally decide what to do with her life. A fight for emancipation - and to find the peace she’s been dreaming of – which is filmed by the director over an impressive ten years.

What’s particularly surprising and profoundly moving is the fact we get to witness the changes Shewit undergoes, whether physical, emotional and psychological. Having arrived in Geneva very young without speaking a word of French, when she was still a minor and scarred by a journey which almost killed her, the protagonist invites us into her inner world. Through a series of poetic yet hard-hitting close-ups on Shewit’s face, the director gives us access to the protagonist’s jealously guarded intimacy. “Laughing is a way to forget”, she explains, as if wanting to remind us that certain unseen scars will never heal, even if they can be soothed by a shared moment of happiness - solidarity between wounded souls who simply need peace in order to rebuild. In her quest for independence, Shewit is guided by her thirst for knowledge and her unyielding tenacity which means she’ll do whatever it takes to secure her autonomy. Accompanied on this journey by the director herself - a kind of friend and confidante with whom she can even share her most painful memories - the protagonist shows us how important it is, especially for a woman, to fight for your independence and assert your own vision of the world.

Freedom – Shewit’s Destiny is a deeply moving film and an uncompromising, intimate yet powerful portrait of a girl who’s fighting for her dreams.

The feature film was produced by Intermezzo Films and Good Story.