The film was directed by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami and premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the festival's World Documentary Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award.
[1][2][3] Sonita follows Alizadeh, who fled the Taliban in Herat, Afghanistan as a child and is an undocumented refugee, over a three-year period.
Ghaemmaghami intervened by paying them $2,000 to delay the marriage, and later helping Alizadeh to secure a scholarship in the United States.
[6] Writing in Time Out, Tom Huddleston described Sonita as a "warm, uplifting but often challenging film – a compelling human drama packed with searching questions about artistic responsibility and the nature of charity.
"[7] In The Guardian, Nigel M Smith gave the film a rating of five stars, commenting, "to witness Sonita’s rise from timid rapper to empowered activist over a three-year span is thrilling.