Rafea: Solar Mamas

Synopsis

Rafea from Jordan is 30 years old. She has 4 children and a husband who’s eager to take a third wife. With encouragement from Jordan’s Ministry of Environment, she leaves her village for the first time to go to Barefoot College in India in an effort to gain a skill as a solar engineer that will bring the much-needed income to support her family and her village. Two months into the program, Rafea’s husband insists that she returns home or he will divorce her and take her children. Rafea goes back, but manages to persuade her family that she should return to India…

Director Biography

Mona Eldaief works in documentary film and television around the world. She has produced work for Frontline World, Discovery Channel, ABC News, and MTV News and Docs. Mona also implemented a video diary exchange program between Israelis and Palestinians, which allowed young people in Israel and the West Bank to create video diaries that were then shared to initiate an ongoing dialogue about the conflict.
Jahane Noujaim was raised in Cairo and began her career as a photographer. Following a B.A. in Film and Philosophy at Harvard, she directed Mokattam (1998). She went on to produce and direct Startup.com (2001) and Control Room (2004), and was co-director on Shayfeen.com: We Are Watching You.