Review of Brave Miss World (2013) by Thomas W — 19 Jun 2014

Linor Abargil won the Miss World pageant in 1998 at the age of 19 while representing her homeland of Israel. The intelligent beauty queen was poised and professional on stage although she harbored a terrible secret -- she had been raped a few weeks prior to the pageant by a man she was supposed to be able to trust.

Brave Miss World is a surprisingly strong documentary about this young woman who has traveled the globe ten years later after finding her inner courage to speak out publicly about the horrific event in which her life was endangered and to also bring advocacy to a much maligned group of individuals (the victims of sexual assault).

I don't think it is as strong as The Invisible War from 2012 but this film is more personal and focused on Abargil. The film is one punch to the gut after another and is potent as the Brave Miss World talks and comforts others into believing that talking about this is what needs to be done.

Those who commit these barbaric need to be shamed ... not the innocents on which they are committed. The film is harrowing at times but it doesn't really know when to end as it does so rather abruptly.

As the film also decides to focus on Linor trying to put her attacker in prison, the audience loses a bit of the other connections Linor is making and it makes the film slightly off-balance.