film

With this powerful 2024 documentary Kurdish director Shilan Saadi follows the lives of several Yazidi refugee girls who survived the horrors of ISIS's massacre of members of the religious group in the Sinjar Mountains, northern Iraq, in summer 2014. The girls initially ended up in a Turkish refugee camp but are now scattered over Europe, and the documentary about them tells a powerful story of resilience and survival in the face of one of the most unspeakable crimes of the 21st century.

The film also sheds light on the history of the Kurds and the displacement of the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi community from their homes as the jihadi group took temporary control of large areas of their homeland. During the attempted genocide, tens of thousands of Yazidis fled into the mountain range for an extended period, surviving on scarce water and aid drops from coalition forces. Around 5,000 Yazidis were murdered, and witnesses described how Yazidi girls who had been raped by ISIS fighters jumped to their deaths from Mount Sinjar. This film brings back to the fore a harrowing story that must not be forgotten.