I would give this film a 4/10, I felt they went to far with the surrealism to the point where the movie made no sense and was needlessly vulgar, a memorable scene to me was the man with the bugs coming out of his hands as it recurred throughout the movie and was treated with a sense of shock.

Philosophers lamp (René Magritte,1936)

 Ulu’s Pants (Leonora Carrington’s, 1917)

I felt the video was comical in how random and confusing the images an example being the guy in a bath of cereal as it caught me off guard the most out of the strange imagery.

The visual style of sisters in laws enforces the fact of Cameroon being an under developed country through the mise en scene I the documentary. An example of this being the lawyers office having huge stacks of paper on her desk as well as her office in general looking cheap with the cleaners using branches to sweep dirt. This shows Cameroons poverty as the lawyer in the film is supposed to be a higher up in society yet cant afford cabinets for files and has an over all run down office. This overall gives the documentary a sympathetic tone showing Cameroon as venerable and unpleasant to live in strengthening the the themes of equality in the documentary.

Social: The documentary is set in Cameroon, a country in central Africa which suffers from poverty and inequality in terms of gender due to being a highly religious place with 69.2 percent of the population are Christian, 20.9 percent Muslim meaning script traditional values are misused against women in the community.

Production: Florence Ayisi and Kim Longinotto where supported financially by the non profit company women make movie who aimed to teach women filmmaking supporting sisters in law to have a wider representation for women directors. Ayisi had the idea to make a documnetry in her home town Cameroon after a visit she had there seeing the mistreatment of women.

1. In sisters in law, an observational form of documentary mode is used. This is done to keep the sense of verisimilitude seeing the real peoples real lives with little editing and intervention helping to connect the audience without it feeling fake.
2. Cinema verite was a movement from France in the 1960s about using more natural unedited shots to capture the very day life. This technique is used in sister in law having the camera roll during real interactions unscripted showing the true events of Cameroon.
3. a.)The style of cinema verite helps to empower women within the documentary sisters in law. As the footage is unedited and raw, the women are able to say what is on their mind and express themselves without a third party altering it in post production to fit an agenda.
4. b.) Many truths are shown within the sisters in law documentary regarding the mistreatment of women in Cameroon and how powerless they are against men as seen through legal system favouring men as seen with the lawyer who was actively mocking a women for speaking out against the abuse from her husband.

I would give the film a 6/10 as i enjoyed the raw footage feel of the film having little intervention to bring the audience as close as possible to the peoples situation however interviews with the people involved should been included to get a larger picture of what they are feeling as well as context. A scene which stuck out to me was when the trails ended bringing people to justice especially during the end when the women was given the divorce showing how relived and empowered she felt.

the mockumentary Borat uses hyperreality to make the absurd situations feel grounded and realistic giving a sense of verisimilitude to the audience leading to a comedic/embarrassed effect.

mediation: the intervention of a third person in a documentary.

distortion: The altering of what’s on screen in a documentary.

hyperreality: re-enacting real events in a way that’s exaggerated.

verisimilitude: The sense of realism within a documentary.

Bias: when the film maker alters a documentaries tone based on their beliefs.

objectivity: a documentary which doesn’t have one set of beliefs but the whole picture.

selection/editing: