Composed of the novelisation of the script for Sophia Al-Maria’s unmade feature film Beretta, this book is composed of a cornucopia of material including emails, budgets, kit-lists, schedules, sketches, storyboards, headshots and excerpts from the script all illustrating what can happen when a young filmmaker’s creative process comes into contact with the crushing forces of politics and money. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Sophia Al-Maria: Virgin With A Memory at Cornerhouse, Manchester, 6 September – 2 November 2014.
I picked this up for the Invisible Cities project June 2022 (Qatar), and I am so so so pleased. Prior to doing a google search for authors from Qatar I had never heard of Sophia Al-Maria and now I am mildly obsessed. I will read anything she puts out. And watch anything she makes too!!
I guess the book is related to some kind of exhibition or art installation or something, but I don't know about that so my review is just based on the reading experience of this book.
The book is about Sophia's experience trying to make a rape revenge movie, but also a telling of that movie. The writing is fantastic, the storyline of the rape revenge portion of the book is great, and getting an insight into the process of trying to have a movie made was also great. It is media with emails, diary entries, portions of the plot told in script, and meta in so many ways and just incredible.
Fascinating memoir and look at an art process shot straight through with the electrifying story for 'Beretta'. They really should've just let the chick make the film.