| Submission | |
|---|---|
 Titlecard, with Dutch subtitles | |
| Directed by | Theo van Gogh |
| Written by | Ayaan Hirsi Ali |
| Produced by | Theo van Gogh Gijs van de Westelaken |
| Cinematography | Theo van Gogh |
| Edited by | Theo van Gogh |
| Music by | Theo van Gogh |
Release date |
|
Running time | 10 minutes |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Language | English |
| Budget | €18,000 |
Submission is a 2004 English-language Dutchshortdrama film produced and directed byTheo van Gogh, and written byAyaan Hirsi Ali (a former member of the DutchHouse of Representatives for thePeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy); it was shown onNPO 3, a Dutch public broadcasting network, on 29 August 2004. The film's title is one of the possibletranslations of the Arabic word "Islam". An Islamist reacted to the film byassassinating Van Gogh.
The film tells the story of four fictional characters played by a single actress wearing a veil,[2] but clad in a see-throughHijab, her naked body painted with verses from theQuran.[1] The characters are Muslim women who have been abused in various ways. The film containsmonologues of these women and dramatically highlights three verses of the Quran (4:34,2:222 and24:2), by showing them painted on women's bodies.
WriterHirsi Ali has said "it iswritten in the Quran a woman may be slapped if she is disobedient. This is one of the evils I wish to point out in the film".[3] In an answer to a question about whether the film would offend Muslims, Hirsi Ali said that "if you're a Muslim woman and you read the Quran, and you read in there that you should be raped if you say 'no' to your husband, that is offensive. And that is insulting."[4]
Director Theo Van Gogh, who was known as a controversial and provocative personality,[5][6] called the film a "political pamphlet."[7]
The film drew praise for portraying the ways in which women are abused in accordance withfundamentalist Islamic law, as well as anger for criticising Islamic canon itself.[8] It drew the following comment from movie critic Phill Hall, "Submission was bold in openly questioning misogyny and a culture ofviolence against women because of Koranic interpretations. The questions raised in the film deserve to be asked: is it divine will to assault or kill women? Is there holiness in holding women at substandard levels, denying them the right to free will and independent thought? And ultimately, how can such a mindframe exist in the 21st century?"[2] Film critic Dennis Lim, on the other hand, stated that, "It's depressing to think that this morsel of glib effrontery could pass as a serious critique of conservative Islam."[9] Another (unnamed) critic referred to the stories told in the film as "simplistic, even caricatures".[8]
After the film's broadcast on Dutch television, newspaperDe Volkskrant reported[full citation needed] claims of plagiarism against Hirsi Ali and Van Gogh, made by Internet journalist Francisco van Jole. Van Jole said the duo had "aped" the ideas of Iranian-American video artistShirin Neshat. Neshat's work, which made abundant use ofPersian calligraphy projected onto bodies, had been shown in the Netherlands in 1997 and 2000.[citation needed]
On 2 November 2004, Van Gogh wasassassinated in public byMohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim with a Dutch passport. A letter,[10] stabbed through and affixed to the body by a dagger, linked the murder to Van Gogh's film and his views regarding Islam. It was addressed to Ayaan Hirsi Ali and called for ajihad againstkafir (unbelievers or infidels), against America, Europe, the Netherlands, and Hirsi Ali herself. Following the murder of Van Gogh, tens of thousands gathered in the center of Amsterdam to mourn Van Gogh's death. Besides Bouyeri, eleven other Muslim men were arrested and charged with conspiracy to assassinate Hirsi Ali.[11] Bouyeri was jailed for life, for which in the Netherlands there is no possibility of parole, andpardons are rarely granted.[12] Some of the others were convicted of other offences in relation to their involvement in the so-calledHofstad Network, but not for a direct connection with the Van Gogh murder.[13]