ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS
Receives North American Premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival

Enemies of Happiness wins "The world cinema jury prize for documentary" in Sundance It has already received Silver Wolf Award at the 2006 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

The Danish Film Institute and Bastard Film are pleased to announce that ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS, Eva Mulvad’s stirring documentary portrait of a young woman fighting for change in war-torn Afghanistan, will receive its North American premiere at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival (World Documentary Competition). The film was recently honored with the prestigious Silver Wolf Award at the 2006 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

A powerful story of courage and conviction, Eva Mulvad’s ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS documents one woman’s fight to bring justice and peace to a besieged people. Malalai Joya is a remarkable 28-year-old Afghani woman who in 2005 ran in her country’s first democratic parliamentary election in over 30 years. Having caused a sensation two years prior for openly accusing leading Afghan politicians of drug-dealing and murder, her reputation precedes her. The film follows Joya on a campaign trail unlike any other: a survivor of repeated assassination attempts, she spreads her message surrounded by armed guards and wears, for security’s sake, the same burka that she ideologically rejects. Though she encounters supporters who are hungry for change, they live in a culture of illiteracy and fear, where votes are for sale and women can’t leave their children to vote. As the film poignantly reminds us, establishing a democracy takes more than the intervention of Western soldiers and diplomats. An opponent of corrupt warlords and a passionate advocate for women’s rights, Joya is a lightning rod for a nation ravaged by war and ruled by tradition, and hers is an urgent and eloquent voice for change.

Featuring vivid, poetic images of Afghanistan’s dusty Farah Province as well as tense, immersive scenes of Joya venturing into dangerous territory, ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS is a candid look at a woman – and a culture – at an historic crossroads.

Sundance Film Festival Screenings:

* SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2:30 pm, Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City
* SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2:30 pm, Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City
* MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 8:30 am, Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City
* Press Screening: MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2:00 pm, Yarrow II, Park City
* TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 9:00 pm, Broadway Centre Cinemas IV, Salt Lake City

58 minutes. In Dari/Pashtu with English subtitles.

Press contacts:
USA: Susan Norget or Eric Hynes, (212) 431-0090 or susan@norget.com or eric@norget.com
Europe: Josephine Michau, +45 6066 4842 orJosephine@bastardfilm.dk

For Sundance ticket info.: http://festival.sundance.org/2007/

For more info. on the film and Malalai Joya: www.enemiesofhappiness.com and www.malalaijoya.com