Special screening of “Bread & Roses” and Q&A with the director Sahra Mani at BFI Southbank for Refugee Week 2025
To mark Refugee Week 2025, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in the United Kingdom is organising a special film screening of “Bread and Roses”, highlighting the struggle and resilience of Afghan women, in collaboration with Counterpoints Arts. The film screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Bread and Roses - Film Screening | Tickets are limited - book here.
Screen NFT3, BFI Southbank, London | Friday 20th June, 6.10 pm
Directed by Sahra Mani, Bread and Roses is a powerful portrayal of three Afghan women seeking to reclaim their autonomy after the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021. Through intimate storytelling and raw footage, the film captures their courage, resilience, and ongoing struggle for rights and freedom. Producers on the film include Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai.
Presented at BFI Southbank, the screening forms part of the official Refugee Week 2025 programme and is delivered in partnership with IOM UK and Counterpoints Arts.
A Q&A session will take place after the screening, providing a platform to amplify Afghan women voices.
Programme
6:10 – 6:15 | Opening Remarks by Christa Rottensteiner, Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the UK.
6:15 – 7:45 | Film Screening (90 minutes)
7:45 – 8:10 | Q&A
- Film director Sahra Mani
- Moderator: Ornella Mutoni, Counterpoints Arts
Bread and Roses - Film Screening
BFI Southbank, London | Fri 20 June | 6.10 PM
Tickets are limited - book here.
About Refugee Week
Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity, and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. This year, Refugee Week 2025 (16–22 June) invites everyone to explore the theme "Community as a Superpower" a celebration of the incredible everyday. Ordinary and extraordinary. Simple acts of shared generosity. Kindness multiplied to become an unstoppable force. More information here.
Meet the speakers
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Sahra Mani is a multiple award-winning filmmaker. She received her master’s degree in documentary filmmaking from the University of Arts London with high distinction and her BA in Film and Cinema. Sahra’s works as a producer and director have had huge impact on women rights, equality and justice. As a lecturer at Kabul University, she organized several film festivals and offered training and mentoring in Afghanistan. Mani’s films have screened at film festivals around the world and aired on broadcast networks globally. Her work as an Impact Campaign producer raises awareness and promotes action for issues and causes that demand social changes. Sahra was a jury member for several film festivals and competitions like World Food Forum FF 2021, International Photo Competition on Global Health and Gender at UCL London 2020, and Rumi FF in Sweden 2018. Her full-length documentary film, A THOUSAND GIRLS LIKE ME, was screened at many film festivals like HotDocs, Sheffield, and IDFA and won more than 25 awards worldwide, including three GOLD Awards at New York Festivals TV & Film, One World Media Award 2019, Full Frame Film Festival, and San Francisco Film Festival.
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Ornella Mutoni is an emerging documentary director, producer and cultural worker whose work explores collective healing, and intimate and sensitive portrayals of the legacy of trauma. Her directorial debut The Things We Don’t Say (2024) premiered at Aesthetica Short Film Festival in November 2024 and was distributed by the Guardian. She has extensive experience working in prime-time broadcast TV and video journalism for award-winning production companies such as Lightbox, Hidden Light and Acme TV. She has worked on a range of documentary styles for UK, Australian, Dutch and American broadcasters and is committed to empowering underrepresented communities to tell their stories. Ornella has also been working on the PopChange initiative at Counterpoints Arts, which has led her to host film panels, curate film programmes and advocate for better migrant and refugee narratives in film and TV.
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Christa Rottensteiner was appointed as Chief of Mission of IOM UK in September 2022. Prior to this, she led IOM’s mission in Yemen for three years. Ms. Rottensteiner has over twenty years of experience in humanitarian response, development and migration management. Before joining IOM, she held a range of leadership roles in the UK’s Department for International Development (now Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office), involving the management of large-scale programmes in contexts such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, and influencing policy on migration and post-conflict reconstruction. Ms. Rottensteiner started her career with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the British Red Cross. A national of Austria, she holds a LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex and a MA in Political Science from the University of Vienna. |
The event will feature a video message from Malala Yousafzai
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The youngest Nobel Prize laureate ever, Malala Yousafzai, was only 17 years old at the time of the award. She was born on 12 July 1997 in Pakistan and was named after an Afghan poet, Malalai of Maiwand. Her father ensured that she received proper schooling and educated her at his private school. He added her name to the family register and allowed her to stay up late and debate politics. From a young age Malala dreamt about becoming a doctor. Malala had a gift for public speaking and began to speak up for girls’ rights to education. In 2009, Yousafzai started an anonymous blog for BBC Urdu. After revealing her identity, the New York Times made a short film about her fight for education for all. As Yousafzai became more known, a death threat was issued against her. In 2012, Malala was shot by a masked gunman on a school bus. He threatened to kill all students on the school bus if she didn’t identify herself. The gunman also shot two of Malala’s friends. After intensive rehabilitation in the United Kingdom, she survived the attack. Fearlessly and with determination, Yousafzai kept fighting for girls’ right to education. Today, she is a role model for many young girls. In 2014, Malala Yousafzai received the Nobel Peace Prize for her bravery and work to ensure girls’ rights to education. |
