This award winning short film takes us behind closed doors to reveal the personal story of Monique, a woman who survived and escaped an abusive relationship, to eventually become an advocate for women in similar situations. Monique talks about her life with her ex-partner, who was physically abusive and where murder was definitely on the horizon.
The toxic question that seemed to surround Monique while in the abusive relationship: “Why don’t you just leave?” But Monique’s story shatters the cruelty of this question, as she did leave the horrendous environment—but the abuse didn’t stop, in fact, it escalated. The sad fact is that this is true for many women who leave domestic violence. She was actually one of the lucky ones—all too often the unlucky ones get killed by their abusers.
The story of Monique helps fight to change society’s attitude towards victims of domestic violence and the misleading assumptions that blame victims for the violence they hope to flee. There is a school of thought that if a person enters into an abusive relationship, they bear the blame for the abuse, because surely it must be a manifestation of poor decisions or low self-esteem. Remember, this is the very same society that encourages women to seek love. But it then shows no mercy when that love turns dangerous, or even fatal.
