Les Filles du Soleil (Girls of the Sun)
Written & directed by Eva Husson
Starring Golshifteh Farahani, Emmanuelle Bercot, Erol Afsin, Evin Ahmad
Showing at the 聽across Australia in March 鈥 April
This is a war film聽unlike any other that you will see, written and directed by a woman, focusing on a squad of the Kurdish autonomous women鈥檚 protection units (YPJ). The聽systematic female enslavement and mass rape by ISIS are its subject matter.聽
Co-starring Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani and France鈥檚 Emmanuelle Bercot, it is gritty and enthralling. It is by turns emotionally confronting and nerve-racking in its battle scenes.
Filmmaker Eva Husson heavily researched the issues before filming. The characters and events are a mash up of real people and episodes in the Syrian civil war. 聽
This is a movie for a broad audience, not a pedantic political lesson. For example, the script passes over the factional differences between the revolutionary-democratic Rojava forces and the capitalist-oriented, Iraqi-based Peshmerga.聽
Watching the women fighters, motivated by their slogan of 鈥淲omen, Life, Freedom鈥 taking on and defeating ISIS terrorists is wonderful.聽Also wonderful is the respectful and tender relations between the fighters.聽
The YPJ and the Rojava Revolution are a window into a better world and this film contributes to telling their story.