"We will win this war"

Director Hannah Polak - about the victims of the war in Iraq and refugee rights, about heroism and resistance. The film "Angels of Sinjara".

Yezidis is an ethnic group that is historically attributed to Kurds. Their whole story is quite tragic. The Yezidov genocide in Northern Iraq occurred in 2014, during the war and the capture of the Islamic State of the city of Sinjar . Mass executions of men, leading into slavery, including sexual, defeat of peaceful dwellings and cruel suppression of resistance - the actions of ISIS militants. The Yezidov genocide is one of the last episodes of modern political history, it is recognized by the UN. The Yezidis asked at the time of the conflict about international assistance, but did not receive it. For refugees-Sezids, the problem is still the problem of getting visas to other countries. The heroine of the documentary of the Polish director Hannah Polaki became a woman who is trying to free five stolen sisters from sexual slavery. By the beginning of the filming, only two of them were saved. At the moment, one of the girls has not been found.
Hannah Polae is one of the most famous authors of the documentary cinema of Europe. Its two films are dedicated to Russia, one of them was nominated for Oscar. About her film "Angels of Sinjar" , which raises questions about the rights of civilians in the zones of military operations and morality of those who help the victims, a conversation with the Hannaya Polary at the Artdokfest festival.

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Women's Calvary, Life Road

The Yezidis do not believe in Satan. They believe that a man is a master of their actions, and worship the seven angels of the light, which the Lord created in the first week of creation. According to the evil irony of fate, the main angel is Azrail, whom Muslims are considered by Satan. In the mid-2010s, the Islamic State carried out the Yezidov genocide on their lands, in the Sinjar district in the north-west of Iraq near the Syrian border. About 5 thousand civilians, mostly men, were killed. Several thousand women fell into sexual slavery to ISIS militants. Hundreds of thousands of Yezidov became refugees.

- Tell us about the scale of the disaster. What numbers are we talking about?

- Of the approximately 6.5 thousand women and girls stolen in sexual slavery, several thousand have not returned yet. Children were forcibly converted into Islam, some were turned into suicide suicide bombers. Now about 300 thousand people live in tents in the territory of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan. A small group returned to Sinjar. About half a million remained in Iraq. It is believed that around the world of Yezidov there are less than a million. We are talking about an ethnic group that is actually doomed to destruction. There were several million of them before. They lived on the territory of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Russia . Some proverbs and sayings indicate that even in Afghanistan. After deportation, they were forcibly "converted" into Islam. In addition, this is not the first Yezidov genocide.

Most of the inhabitants were killed

Most of the Yezidov speak Kurdish Dialect of Kurmandzhi . The Kurds believe that the Yezidis is their branch, and the Yezidis is that the Kurds are the Yezidis who accepted Islam. The territories of the Yezidov are considered controversial, they pass from hand to hand, there are constantly fighting. A month before the ISIS invasion, the Iraqi army left there, and the Kurdish army of Peshmerga took the territory under the protection of the territory. In 2014, Peshmerga betrayed them, actually condemned them for extermination, people no longer want to think about themselves as the Kurds. The Kurds closed the checkpoints and left, saying that they were going to another village to fight ISIS, leaving the naked residents of the Kocha settlement . Kocha spent 14 days surrounded, and when ISIS entered, most of the inhabitants were killed. The Yezeids turned to the whole world, but no one saved them. ISIS militants arranged a massacre there.

There is no concept of Satan in the Yezid religion

The Yezids have a unique religion with elements of Hinduism, for example, they believe in the relocation of souls. Muslims believe that they worship Iblis, a fallen angel, Satan. But in the Yezid religion there is no concept of Satan. They believe that a person himself makes a choice between good and evil. People who once studied their religion incorrectly introduced them to the world, and I came across the fact that not only ISIS considers them "wrong", but also Christians who come with humanitarian help, believe that they "should save the souls of the Yezzy." In 1915, the Ottoman Empire exterminated Christians , and they found protection among the Yezids. They accepted them, although they knew that they would have to pay a bloody price. Today, the Ezidam himself needs help.

Frame from the film "Angels of Sinjara"

-In 2016, you met with a person who told you that in Germany there is a group of women with children with children who undergo psychotherapy about violence experienced in sexual slavery in ISIS.

- It was about making a project about women who came to Germany. I went there in 2017 to meet them. I listened to their stories, mounted, there were several short interviews. I was not going to make a film. But they touched me very much. I understood that this is not only a female topic, not only about sexual violence. This is a systematic destruction of the people. I wanted to meet both men and the elderly.

They took out phones and showed a photo from Iraq

In Germany, I met with the Yezids and with people who were conducting a program of psychological assistance to them. They made a very difficult decision, choosing the most affected people. They were still, saw all this. When I started talking to them, they took out phones and showed a photo from Iraq. I realized that this is the scene of the film. Where the destroyed temples stand, people live in tents, where there are those that they constantly talk about where they were executed. After that, I left for Iraq. At that time, it was impossible to get there from Baghdad, the road was cut, the city of Tall Afar was still in the hands of ISIS, and it is located about 50 km from Sinjar. But when I went there, all the doors began to open mystically, I met the right people and stopped deeper into this land. I was told that I was the first journalist who came from the west after the liberation of these territories.

- The main character is Hanifa. And the main character?

- Said. He is from Kochi, and Hanifa from the settlement, which is called Tel Azer, the Arab name - skiing. Hanifa lost five sisters who were captured by ISIS, and Said was one of the men that ISIS captured to kill, and almost all his brothers died. His sisters and other relatives were captured, which he witnessed. He survived in this massacre and was able to crawl away from the place of execution before the ISIS bulldozers buried the bodies of the dead and his still living tribesmen into the ground.

Nobody helps her, besides, she goes against society

Hanifa is looking for his sisters and other people captured by ISIS. She lives in a patriarchal society, where a woman did not fit in one taxi, generally acting independently, she should be under the care of a man. And she has no men. Her father died, unable to withstand what happened to his daughters. Before his death, he made a promise from her to find them. Nobody helps her, besides, she goes against society, against relatives who make her claims that she does not lead a life appropriate for a woman. When she manages to get the first two sisters out of captivity - they just got into this German program - she sends them and is completely alone. Although she has the opportunity to leave with them. This is the story of self -sacrifice, love, courage. She does not have her life, she dissolves in this mission, almost impossible. Only in a small fragment at the end of the film do we hear it speaks of herself. There is a person with whom they have mutual sympathy, but they will not be together until she fulfills the promise to her father. She understands that it is impossible to combine all this: if she has a family, her own child, she will no longer be able to go, for example, to Syria, to risk her life.

Ezidov Temple in Shinjar

- How did you find it?

- I came to Iraq, they brought me to her, but she did not want to speak. On the eve of the anniversary of the genocide, she said, she cried a lot. Things went badly, in two years she did not find a trace of the sisters, it seemed to her that everything was in vain, she could not live on. I took out the camera, then hid it. We sat, drank tea. And they started talking about visas. When she realized that I was from Europe, she just clung to me, because she thought that maybe thanks to our meeting she could go to Germany, in which Iraq was in the last place to issue visas. It was difficult for her to get a visa despite the fact that her family, two sisters and mother were taken to Germany. She began to show photos, I saw the people whom she had already shot.

Most are mined, there are practically no roads

I went into the depths of the region. Here the war began between the Autonomous Republic of Kurdistan and the Iraqi Central Government. The planes did not fly, the border crossings were closed, the entrance through Kurdistan closed for eight months. But since I was in Iraq, I managed to establish connections and come through Baghdad. At this time, Tall Afar was freed from ISIS. The road was very dangerous, it walked through Mosul , through the territories on which there were still a lot of ISIS. Most are mined, there are practically no roads. But Hanifa could not come to me, it was difficult for her to go through the checkpoints. In Sinjara, I was looking for another hero. Once in one of the villages I was waiting for a car with a famous Yezid fighter, and with him Said got out of the car. He surprised me, in him there was some special goodwill, beauty, softness. He invited me to his native Koch. He is engaged in helping people there.

His heart was pulled out, everything was taken from him

We came to this completely destroyed village. Said arranged a traditional charitable dinner, a kind of offering to ancestors. A very modest family event, only a few people, because Kocha is completely empty. Said showed me the place where he was executed, and his house. I saw a man, a man who cannot cope with his own life, because his heart was pulled out, everything was taken from him. Who literally rebelled from the coffin and did not want to live on. He may be even harder than Hanifa, because he himself was left without help. He was not able to protect his mother, sisters, he himself was shot, he received a lot of injuries. I even then found an X -ray picture of Said with a bullet in the lungs.

I have no moral right to force him to worry again

He did not want to tell his story, because he knew that in this case he would have to die as if. Once we agreed to meet a girl, Said's niece. She managed to run away from the captivity of ISIS with another girl, but she stepped on a mine and undermined, and Said’s niece was wounded, she knocked her eyes out. The day before, I woke up at night in his house, in the room where we all slept together, and saw that Said was sitting by the window, it was very difficult for him. I realized that I have no moral right to force him to worry again on the set. Of course, this story hurts people when they watch the film. After filming, I also have a certain level of injury. But this cannot be compared close to what is happening to him. He does this for the sake of the Yezidov, in order for people to learn about them, but it is impossible to tell what he is worth it. And I said: no, we will go to drink tea tomorrow, we will rejoice, walk, we will not shoot, listen, tell, enough.

Frame from the film "Angels of Sinjara"

- Continue about Hanifa, about her path. This is, in fact, the path to Calvary. She asks those who escaped from captivity and hears stories about unimaginable atrocities.

- The youngest sister of Hanifa, who fell into slavery, was incomplete seven years. That is, we are talking about children. The girls who returned from there told me many times: "I thought that my story is the most terrible. But when I hear other stories, I understand that some had even worse." It happened that Hanifa took out the phone to show the video and the photo, and I immediately began to cry, because I already knew what I would see there.

After returning, she tried to commit suicide five times

The same story is repeated from time to time. For example, a woman returns from slavery, and it turns out that after returning she tried to commit suicide five times. She thought she would run away and return to life, but she could not get away from what was done to her. And besides, no one awaits her in the wild, there were only women and children there.
When one of the Hanifa sisters returns, we see that everything that Hanifa herself did is repeated in a mirror reflection. Others ask her the same question: "Have you seen such and such there?" Hanifa says: "I went to these girls, asked them, and when a nine -year -old girl told me that she was sold fifteen times, I could not stand it, it was doubly hard, because I understood that this was happening with my sisters." Then Hanifa stopped believing these stories, because once she was told that her sister committed suicide, but it turned out that it was another girl. Or they said that her sister died during the bombing, but even then it was another girl who came under fire with her. Therefore, when her sister says that some girl will not return, because she turned to Islam, Hanifa begs her: "Do not tell the relatives of such things, leave them hope."

Frame from the film "Angels of Sinjara"

- Who are these men who help Hanifa? What are they risking?

- Some of them have their own interest. Some of them are activists, but they still need money, because people risk their lives, they need to organize transport. In addition, they always have some kind of network of informants, often on the territory of ISIS. Once, when trying to free one of the sisters in a shootout, people who tried to save her died, the operation fell off. The sister was returned. Only the second attempt ended successfully.

- That is, Hanifa’s soul, among other things, lies the burden of salvation.

- People are aware of this price. The person who is engaged in this says that he is glad to sacrifice his life, although he has a family, a child, he is threatened. There were many cases when people came to save, they were caught on this and killed.

- In Europe, they can hardly provide refuge people from Iraq, even the Yezidam. Recently, Bundestag recognized the murder of Yezids with genocide . Can this affect the refugee situation?

- I do not understand the EU policy in relation to the Ezids. Germany adopted a declaration equating the destruction of the Yezids to the genocide. But even recently, some people who turned for asylum have not received it anyway. On the Polish border with Belarus at some point, the Yezidov group was clamped between the Belarusian and Polish security forces. They were thrown, drove back and forth, did not allow them to return or go ahead. People died there. I wrote letters to the Polish ministers, but the decision in favor of the Yezidov was not made. “When people died on Mount Sinjar, running away from ISIS, they even knew who their enemy was. And here their death is completely meaningless. They already experienced so much. I don’t ask you to open the boundaries and let everyone in a row, it is clear that the rapists can get into our country. But let these people not die on the border, since they decided on the border. Extreme this right belongs to them as people. "

I would like to have such neighbors myself. These are beautiful, kind, highly moraine people

The Yezidis, not being Muslims, are always in danger in their homeland. People live in tents, without work, their children do not go to school, they are destroyed at home, they did not receive any reparations, compensations, their lands are not cleared. Where can they return? They have no home. They are internally displaced faces, but they have no status by which they can leave the country. They do not get a visa. In these conditions, in terrible suffering, people have been living for years. They fall into despair, tents burn. Only women were taken to the German program, for example,. They did not take their husbands, brothers, sons. Families are divided. Some of these men go through the "green border" in the forest, they are beaten, put in prisons, they die in the snow. Or an elderly mother goes to her son or daughter on foot through the forest. And this does not bother anyone. Yes, people are afraid of strangers. But I would like to have such neighbors myself. These are beautiful, kind, highly moraine people.

Frame from the film "Angels of Sinjara"

- In Latvia on the border with Belarus in August 2021 to March 2022 , a couple of hundred people were stuck. They were kept there secretly, nothing reported to relatives, or volunteers, or reporters. They were driven across the border and back. Among them were 18 Yezids. Including two women who have been in sexual captivity at ISIS. In November, after they tried to commit suicide, they were accepted "for humanitarian reasons", but they did not allow them to submit a petition for asylum and forced to sign a certificate of voluntary return to Iraq. Do they send from Poland to Iraq Yezidov who entered the territory of the country?

- I know that the Polish services forced people to sign the so -called “voluntary return” and put them on airplanes. It is very difficult to get information, because the connection is interrupted with them. It is difficult for them to get into the territory of the European country and find themselves in a situation where they could submit a petition. Therefore, volunteers who act as witnesses of illegal "jacks" go to the border. They immediately call a lawyer in order to put this person in a legal situation in which his petition would be officially accepted. But this happens very rarely. Basically, services are trying to get to refugees, to pick them up, and we do not know anything about their fate. But when their relatives contact me, I tell them: “Tell them not to try to return to Poland. Even if they crossed the border, they will be taken back and put between the two armies of the security forces, deep in the Winter Forest, and they will wander there and back, and then we will look for their bones.” I understand that it is scary that they paid the smugglers the last money that the family collected, so that at least one succeeds, so that he could study or earn a whole family.

It’s like today to meet a medieval knight, brave, courageous, noble and fundamental

We are talking about very sad things. And I want to say something else. Yezidis are funny people and faithful friends, they have a unique religion, music. This is an ancient culture preserved by untouched in a mountain range. It is like today to meet a medieval knight, brave, courageous, noble and fundamental. Often in Iraq, the Yezidis worked on the American army, because they can be relying on them. They love to study very much. The women of the Yezidov are respected, they drive cars, do not wear scarves. I do not look at these people as victims. For example, a girl returns from captivity. She could commit suicide, but decided to intercede for herself, not to let herself break. She is small, but she has qualities that make me look at her from the bottom up. I believe that we will win this war. Because we are people, we have a heart, there is love and friendship. Among all the darkness of this story, a ray of sun breaks.

Hannah Polae

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