The Phantom Pain of Rojava review – Kurdish fighters of the war against IS tell a story of courage and survival | Video

Sshows footage of a female military commander’s funeral, documentary maker Maryam Ebrahimi says it’s the first time she’s seen women carrying a coffin in the Middle East. As he walks through the crowd of mourners, he adds: “Their relationship amazes me.” Ebrahimi is talking about the women of Rojava, the Kurdish-led autonomous socialist region in the north. Syria. At the cemetery, women dig the dirt with their hands; is a ritual in Rojava, a final act of solidarity with their fallen sister.

Ebrahimi’s tender, tender film is about a home for wounded soldiers in Rojava; many are survivors of the war against them Islamic State (HE). The house is mixed; One of the men who lives there is Fadakhar, who has had both his legs amputated and suffers from itching and pain at night. However, Ebrahimi’s focus is on women in the past, who made headlines a decade ago for their bravery in war. We learn that women started leaving their villages to fight IS in 2011 – although more facts about the history of all female Kurdish fighters would be helpful.

The caretaker is an Iranian Kurd named Sorkhin, whose gentleness and warmth seem at odds with his reputation; is famous in Rojava for rescuing Yazidi women and girls who are being held as slaves by IS. Sorkhin says his work has always been the same: “Everything I’ve done is for women… I want women to be human.” As most of the regimes are always on a regular basis, the purpose of the drones sent by Turkey is to kill the leaders of the Kurdish forces. Another resident of the house is Zarin, a sniper who served under Sorkhin, and was shot in the head. Zarin’s brain injury prevents him from speaking but he tells the camera, cheerfully: “I was injured for the sake of democracy.” Amazingly moving.