Oscar winner puts ‘honor killings’ in crosshairs

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is seen at the St....

Perhaps the most shocking turn in “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” — a documentary filled with moments that are hard to fathom — arrives before the halfway point.

Filmmaker and journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy secures an interview in prison with the father and uncle of a Pakistani woman who had eloped, then was shot in the face and left to die. The relatives not only admit to committing the horrible crime, they blame the girl for shaming their family and say they would do it again.

“They were so convinced that they did something so virtuous and so correct, that they answered all my questions,” Obaid says. “‘This is my right. I’ve done this. I’ll do it again.’ The bravado was too much.”

Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy walks onstage to accept the Best Documentary Short Subject award for 'A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness' onstage during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. less Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy walks onstage to accept the Best Documentary Short Subject award for 'A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness' onstage during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby ... more Photo: Kevin Winter, Getty Images Photo: Kevin Winter, Getty Images Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Oscar winner puts ‘honor killings’ in crosshairs 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Obaid-Chinoy’s short film, an HBO production nominated for a 2016 Academy Award, portrays the aftermath of a failed “honor killing.” The crime is all too common in her native country, in large part because it goes virtually unpunished. After 18-year-old Saba survives the ordeal, she endures pressure to “forgive” her father and uncle — a baffling legal loophole that would allow them to avoid punishment.

“A Girl in the River,” which airs March 7 on HBO, is another acclaimed documentary for Obaid-Chinoy, who released her first film, “Terror’s Children” (2003), while she was a graduate student at Stanford University. When Obaid-Chinoy won a 2012 Academy Award for the documentary “Saving Face,” about a doctor who performs reconstructive surgery on victims of acid attacks, she became the first Pakistani filmmaker to win an Oscar.

But even more important, she said, is the possibility the film might lead to change. After her nomination, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif congratulated Obaid-Chinoy and pledged his support to help make honor killings crimes against the state, eliminating the law that allows killers to be pardoned by their victims. She hopes to meet with Sharif as soon as this week.

Obaid-Chinoy, who lives in Pakistan with her husband and two young children, still has strong ties to the Bay Area. Sitting down last week to talk about the film at a cafe in Union Square, she runs into a friend from grad school on the patio.

Her subject matter in 20 films, though, has mostly come from Pakistan and neighboring countries. The 37-year-old filmmaker learned about Saba while reading a Pakistani newspaper. She rushed to the hospital, where the head administrator knew Obaid-Chinoy from “Saving Face.”

“He knew who I was, and he was excited,” Obaid-Chinoy remembers. “He wanted to give me access. He was an incredible man — he had daughters of his own. I still remember he said, ‘This could be my own daughter.’”

The plotline of “A Girl in the River” is filled with woe. But deeper in the documentary, heroes abound. When the wounded Saba wiggled out of a gunnysack and made her way to a gas station, paramedics arrived almost immediately. She was given excellent medical and legal help. A Pakistani police detective and a pro bono defense attorney are the angels on Saba’s shoulder, urging her to follow her instincts and reject pressure from village elders to forgive the accused.

“When you first see the investigating officer, and you see his beard down to here, you may not expect him to say what he says,” Obaid-Chinoy explains. “He shatters everyone’s stereotypes. He went out on a limb. He fought for (Saba).

Photo: Courtesy HBO Films Injured victim Saba looks in the mirror in the HBO Films production...

“Those men, simply by doing their jobs, tell you there are men within Pakistan who don’t condone this kind of murder. They don’t condone this kind of thing.”

Obaid-Chinoy’s films seem built to combat stereotypes, and she’s aware of her ability to demystify Middle East and Muslim cultures to Western audiences. But a much as the film is a piece of journalism and art, she acknowledges that it first and foremost was conceived as an agent for change.

“I was very clear that the film would be used as a vehicle to talk about honor killings in Pakistan,” Obaid-Chinoy says.

“I can’t wave a magic wand and change things, but I can provide something that can be used as a lobbying tool, as a vehicle to show ‘this is why we shouldn’t have honor killings.’”

An admitted workaholic, Obaid-Chinoy laments that she was only in San Francisco for a day — her film was screened at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio, also the home to Lucasfilm. (Showing a light and fun side that comes out in conversation, Obaid-Chinoy posed with a Stormtrooper in the lobby for a picture, which she posted on Twitter.)

“I miss it. I used to come to San Francisco a lot,” Obaid-Chinoy says of her years at Stanford. “I took trips and saw all of the Bay Area. Sonoma and Napa, and all the small towns. We would drive and just pull off the freeway and explore.”

Ultimately, she decided that to tell the stories she wanted to tell, she would have to live in Pakistan. But she’ll continue to visit California — next returning for the Feb. 28 Academy Awards, to see if she’ll earn a second trophy.

“Thankfully, my world brings me back to the U.S. very often,” she says. “But I thought it was important for me to go back to Pakistan. I think the work that I do in Pakistan, and opportunities I get in Pakistan, will hopefully create a better tomorrow for my children. That’s hard to replicate anywhere else in the world.”

Peter Hartlaub is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail phartlaub@sfchronicle.com

“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” premieres at 9 p.m. March 7 on HBO. More information about Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s films is available at www.sharmeenobaidfilms.com.