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| Fig 1 |
Channel 4’s documentary, “Forced Marriage Cops” (2015) based in Manchester (but relates to
the United Kingdom as well as the rest of the world) gives an insight into the
hidden crimes of (mostly) women being forced into marriage by family members,
and what the consequences are if they don’t. A law passed in April 2014 to make forced
marriage illegal, and therefore parents/family members who make their daughters/women
marry someone they have chosen are eligible for arrest.
This type of documentary can be classes as The Poetic Mode,
but has a narrator scattered throughout the voices of people within the
documentary. The tone is serious with sad music, that allows the viewer to understand
that what’s going on is not right. There is also use of slightly wobbly camera
movement and things being out of focus, and this makes the viewer feel they are
inside the film and experiencing what is going on around them.
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| Fig 2 |
There are multiple interviews with police members and
victims of forced marriage to show the harsh reality of what goes on behind
closed doors in a close-knit Asian community. One officer explains that parents
mostly want their daughters to get married as they think they know what’s best
for them, how it will benefit the family, the groom’s family, retaining honour
and/or having the chance to live in the United Kingdom.
A girl speaks of her father beating her as she came home
late from swimming, and he believed she was seeing a boy. Parents, more so fathers, can be more violent and
even kill their own children to retain their honour. The father wants her to
get married to her nephew in Afghanistan, so he can come to England and have a
better life. In the documentary, the girl fled to the police as her father
threatened to kill her, however, the daughter does not want her father to go to
prison. This is mostly because she wouldn’t know what the consequences would
be, and this goes for most cases as they are still their parents.
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| Fig 3 |
In the documentary, it urges more people to come forward for
help. It shows the charity Karma Nirvana campaigning against forced marriage.
The documentary ends with the viewer having lingering
thoughts about what they have watched, and it is informative it the way it
depicts real life situations, arrests, rescues and interviews.
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