After the impressive Gulistan, Land of Roses (VdR 2016), the Kurdish filmmaker Zaynê Akyol returns with these conversations with imprisoned members of the Islamic State, alternating their words with aerial views of the countryside. An unexpected look at a far-reaching current political issue and a film whose subject matter and rhythm create an impressive cinematic object.
Direction
Akyol's refusal to sensationalize is its own radical act.
Cinematography
Drone shots of Syrian countryside: beauty that held brutality.
Editing
Cutting between faces and landscapes hollows your stomach.
Director
Zaynê Akyol
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kurdish documentary tradition centers women's perspectives on state violence—Akyol continues this lineage pioneered by filmmakers like Bahman Ghobadi.
The prisoners' repeated requests for cigarettes and soda mirror Hannah Arendt's 'banality of evil'—domestic cravings in the mouth of atrocity.
CA
