Sitting under Susanna: Gender violence, art, and collective healing in Fatimah Ashgar’s Retrieval

This essay examines Fatimah Ashgar’s short lyrical film Retrieval as an important example of art production in a post-#MeToo age. In Retrieval , Ashgar takes viewers on a spiritual journey as the protagonist goes back in time to perform a soul retrieval to revive and heal part of the past-self’s soul that was lost or fragmented due to rape and the trauma that followed. Based on their own personal experience with sexual assault, Ashgar creates a film that relies on both magical realism and the trauma psychology to visually demonstrate to viewers what the aftermath of rape and sexual assault can do to survivors and to offer them a healing way through this trauma. This essay also examines the ways in which many artists are exploring gender violence and sexual assault in performance art, film, and paintings, including historical renderings of Susanna and the Elders. Blending art historical analysis with creative nonfiction, the author draws on psychology, trauma-informed studies, and personal narrative to demonstrate the powerful ways art can be used to heal—both personally and collectively.