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Production
2023

The Phantom Pain of Rojava

IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund Grantee

  • headshot of Maryam Ebrahimi wearing a brown shirt, sitting in front of a black and white brick wall holding a camera lens
    Maryam Ebrahimi, Director
  • Stina Gardell, Producer
The image depicts the hands of a women sitting in a sofa. The women is dressed in military clothes and one hand is a prothesis.

About the Project

In 2015 the Kurdish guerrillas - both men and women - were praised as heroes by the world. They had fought against ISIS and won, but soon after, their allies left the region and the world’s spotlight changed focus. Today, many of the guerrillas are badly injured without arms or legs, and live in houses for wounded soldiers. In this film we follow five friends; Rojda who is blind, Fadakhar who lost two legs, Zarin who was shot in the head, Sorkhin with metal in her whole body and Viyan, the folk singer who tells the story of Rojava and the dream of freedom. This is a film about life after war and also about the strength of continuing to fight for a dignified life.

Project Team

    headshot of Maryam Ebrahimi wearing a brown shirt, sitting in front of a black and white brick wall holding a camera lens

    Maryam Ebrahimi

    Maryam Ebrahimi, director, studied art at the Art Faculty in Tehran and continued her education in Sweden at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design. Later she started to work as a producer and director in the documentary field. She co-directed No Burquas Behind Bars (2012), set in an Afghan women’s prison, and produced I Was Worth 50 Sheep (2010) and Prison Sisters (2016). Her last feature as a director is Stronger Than A Bullet which premiered at IDFA 2017. Maryam is a Chicken & Egg 2021 Award recipient. 

    Stina Gardell

    Stina Gardell founded Mantaray Film in 2005 and has since produced 29 documentaries and co-produced 10 international documentaries. She has twice been awarded Best Documentary at Prix Italia, in addition to a number of prestigious film awards. Her most recent production, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, premiered at Sundance 2021 and was picked up by Films Boutique. Her film Ingrid Bergman In Her Own Words (2015) premiered at Cannes, where it received a Golden Eye Special Mention. And Joyce Carol Oates - A Body in the Service of Mind premiered in Telluride 2021.