One of the most horrifying Isis operations was the physical and cultural genocide of the Yezidi Kurds in Iraq. After conquering the Shingal region west of Mossul the terrorist militia began to systematically kill the male population while thousands of children, girls and women were kidnapped, enslaved, forced into marriage or raped. Very few of them managed to escape and the survivors are marked for the rest of their lives. Like the sister Hailin and Roken and their friend Soolaf who live in a refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border in the UNHCR tent number 157. A miserable place, cold, rainy and oppressive, like the suffering etched deeply into the girls’ faces.

Iranian filmmaker Behrouz Nouranipour approaches the fate of his protagonists by reducing the visual level almost exclusively to the interior of the tent. This is where the girls huddle day after day, without expectations, alone, without protection. Their memories of the old life and its dreams, of parents and siblings who are lost or dead, and the depictions of the atrocities inflicted on them by the Jihadists evoke an image of dehumanisation that’s deeply harrowing. Who could close their heart to this suffering?

Matthias Heeder

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Nominated for Young Eyes Film Award

More than fifty relatives gather on a narrow terrace for a family photo. Right at the start, the director asks those who don’t want to be part of the film to go. Half of them leave the picture. Those who stay have therefore given their consent. What follows is the tragicomic retelling of an Iranian family saga in which everything revolves around the head of the family: “Haji Baba”, the father. They say he’s malicious and interfering. His children and his wife, who left him, raise serious charges, submit a complaint against him. As is so often the case, it is a matter of inheritance. Haji Baba denies everything. But who is right?

In his filmic family constellation, the filmmaker tries to keep his bearings in a jungle of conflicting statements. He does not arrange a direct confrontation between the factions, but gives every family member a stage, using surprising tools and lots of humour. He lovingly presents the outcast, who has a poem to recite or a romantic song to sing for every occasion. Secretly, Haji Baba dreams of fame, which this film will hopefully bring him.

Annina Wettstein