UNITED STATES PREMIERE

The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking people of what is now Iraqi Kurdistan, have been oft persecuted for maintaining their traditional culture, including a unique religion based on pre-Zoroastrian beliefs. This rendered them a special target for ISIS, which in 2014 massacred and abducted thousands in Shingal, the largest Yazidi-majority city. Kurdish director Shilan Saadi—beset by her own childhood memories of the Iran–Iraq War—runs a filmmaking workshop for survivors of Shingal, teaching seven teenaged girls to document their lives in a Turkish refugee camp. Bonds are forged and strengthened, but soon fray as one after another departs for Europe. Taking a mixed-media approach to the Yazidi genocide and its aftermath, Saadi and her collaborators produce an uncannily powerful group portrait, each frame a witness to perseverance and haunted by absence. - Josh Martin, Special Programs & Feature Film Programmer

CONTENT CONSIDERATION: Subject matter includes war and genocide

*Eligible to be redeemed as part of the 5-ticket package

DIRECTORS: Shilan Saadi,
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Samira Marzban, Hejar Nurani
PRODUCERS: Shilan Saadi, Keyvan Fahimi, Gülay Kilicaslan
CO-PRODUCERS: Inna Tedzhoeva, Zina Broyan, Fatosh Yildiz, Nazanin nana Valajam

LENGTH: 1 hour 25 minutes
LANGUAGE: Kurdish and Turkish with English Subtitles
COUNTRY: Iran, Belgium, Canada, Georgia, Turkey
GENRE: Documentary Feature