Gulistan, Land Of Roses

An intimate portrait of women in revolution ... filmmaker Zaynê Akyol’s poetic portrait is set in the rugged mountains and deserts of Kurdistan where her lens takes us deep inside a brigade of female Kurdish guerrillas fighting Islamic State. It’s a far cry from current affairs media reporting filled with bombings and blood – it is a quieter, more reflective insight into the reality of a world we can scarcely imagine. As much as it is about warfare the lm is a powerful statement about gender. Fierce and proud, these women instill fear in their enemy, not only for their bravery and skill, but also because, for ISIS soldiers, dying at the hands of a woman means they’ll never reach heaven. In turn, the women live in fear of being taken as spoils of war, believing that “every woman left to the mercy of man is condemned to slavery.”