Mediha

"Mediha" is a powerful documentary directed by Hasan Oswald that offers a candid glimpse into the life of a 15-year-old Iraqi girl named Mediha, who, along with her brothers, Ghazwan and Adnan, navigates the challenges of living in a refugee camp after being rescued from ISIS captivity. Through a blend of first-person camerawork by Mediha herself and Oswald's aerial shots, the film sheds light on the atrocities faced by the Yazidi community, where men are executed, women are sold into slavery, and children are indoctrinated into the Islamic State.

Oswald's sensitive storytelling approach allows Mediha to share her experiences at her own pace, respecting her boundaries while still highlighting the resilience and strength she embodies. The documentary not only serves as a poignant reminder of the ongoing humanitarian crisis but also celebrates the power of resilience and the hope for healing in the face of unimaginable trauma.

"Mediha" is a compelling and thought-provoking film that demands attention and empathy from viewers, offering a unique perspective on the human spirit's ability to endure and overcome adversity.

Young Yazidi woman, Mediha, tells her story. Through her lens you live her harrowing world, and the post mortem of surviving ISIS.

Director, Hasan Oswald, adeptly empowers Mediha to narrate her journey, skillfully capturing the dark nuances along side glimpses of hope.

They weave human resilience with stark tragedy and the pursuit of justice. You will think about Mediha long after the film ends, humbled and inspired.

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• Incredible access
• Poetic cinematography and editing
• Dynamic characters
• Vérité and real
• Important story of Yazidi genocide in Kurdistan
• Depth and emotion.

Before seeing Mediha, i had some mixes feeling about the movie, especially regarding the overall method. Deciding to give the protagonist a camera is a peculiar choice. You have to trust the subject so much that she will become part of the movie, somehow a second director. Mediha successfully manages to tell her story in a personal way that has no equal, and paradoxically i now think that the method is the major innovative strenght of the movie, together with the heartbreaking, untold, kept-away-from-the-media story. Mediha is one of the most interesting documentaries of this year and i really hope it will find its audience around the world.

Saw this at the Movies That Matter 2024 filmfestival in The Hague. Lots of issues pass by in this story. Women who return after having lived years under ISIS are not always accepted by their original society, for two reasons. (1) They are generally converted (forcefully, but still) to Islam, something in their (Yazidi) beliefs you cannot simply shake off. (2) Children who came forth from their life within ISIS, are separated from their natural mother and she cannot keep them with her. Such obstacles result in alienating these women from their hometown and their own people, depriving them from a useful future. What are these women to do??

Apart from that, when trying to get these women back, it proves very difficult to find them. They usually receive new names, thereby destroying all traces back to their original life. Also, they are often sold more than once, so following their tracks is far from trivial. So-called rescuers are needed as an intermediary. We see part of this demonstrated when searching for Mediha's lost brother. Eventually they find him in Turkey, where his current "parents" are willing to give him away when granted amnesty for their ISIS misdeeds. His return is not easy for him, however, as he seriously misses his "mother". He weeps all day long while suffering homesickness. For him, this homecoming, albeit happy for the family wanting him back, works out as a stressful event. Understandably, he cannot see the big picture and cannot realize this new family is his actual natural family. Moreover, he must unlearn Turkish too, an extra complication in communicating with him.

Another angle is prosecuting the ISIS-men who stole these women from their home in the first place, forcing them into slavery, and even selling them to other men within ISIS. Some numbers were reported about cases where it was possible to identify the men in question. Alas, it was a disappointingly low number (say a handful in total). In other words, another avenue without success.

Finally, the women in question usually don't talk freely about their experiences, mostly due to commonly untreated and ignored PTSS. The main protagonist in this movie was relatively unique, being able to speak about what happened, in fact a rare example. She was able to pinpoint her captor within a long series of photos shown to her, a tedious session but it had to be done as starting point for the search. Not all women can endure this, without getting overwhelmed by emotions or PTSS.

All in all, a solid and multi-facetted overview to demonstrate the difficulties in this field. Undoing the wrongs involved, is met with very many obstacles, not alone for practical reasons but also because of cultural and religious principles. The movie's urgent message shows clearly that solutions are far away.

Mediha is a call to empathy and understanding. A story of horror and hope, of loss and resilience. It invites us to look beyond what we know, the power of Mediha, the young Yazidi girl whose childhood was stolen but found the strength to fight, survive and speak up."Mediha" (2023) struck me deeply. It is staggering how often we forget that behind every war or tragedy there are people with unique and complex stories just like her. Mediha, with her eyes full of courage, reminds us that every number in the statistics represents a broken life, a broken family, a stolen future. Her words are like an urgent call to recognize the humanity. "Mediha" invites us to be more empathetic and to recognize the strength and dignity of victims of atrocities.