Brave Miss World is a documentary that follows Linor Abargil, Miss World 1998, as she becomes a global advocate for rape survivors and discusses her own experience as a rape victim shortly before winning her crown. Brave Miss World also features interviews with her family, friends and then boyfriend/now husband. Brave Miss World and Abargil use the documentary to give rape victims a chance to speak out about what happened to them: mostly young girls in South Africa, college students in the US, some celebrities and one man who used his experience to literally fight crime as an adult.
Brave Miss World is a powerful documentary that gives a necessary platform to an important issue. I am not a sensitive viewer, but there is one story in Brave Miss World that left me wondering how the victim was able to remain sane after such a surreally violent experience. I was shaken knowing that another human being could function after that experience.
Brave Miss World needed a little more editing because there is some repetition when Abargil recounts her experience in the beginning and towards the end when she decides to retrace her footsteps in an effort to stop her rapist from getting parole. There is a point when Brave Miss World feels less like a documentary and becomes somewhat intrusive like a reality show during confessional interviews where Ms. Abargil is not featured. The boyfriend is avoiding Abargil, expresses dismay over her conversion to the most conservative version of Judaism and is uncomfortable with her activism. I’m glad that I am wrong, but it felt like Brave Miss World was going to feature a break up, and she did not see it coming. I know that they included the footage because there is a happy ending that shows Abargil finding happiness, but it detracted from the focus of her work and the film.
Brave Miss World can be an empowering documentary for survivors and those who love victims of sexual violence, but it also can be triggering and horrifying so use your best judgment based on your experience.