Hawar, nos enfants bannis
Pascale Bourgaux
Belgium, Switzerland | 2023 | 74 min
World premiere
Languages : Kurdish, English, Arabic
Subtitles : French, English
In 2014, Daesh took control of Northern Iraq, home to the Yazidi community. They separated families, killing the men and kidnapping the women and girls, who were then “offered” to the jihad fighters. The reporter and filmmaker Pascale Bourgaux tells the story of the children born during this period of captivity, “the bastards of Daesh”, shedding light on this human tragedy.
In 2014, the Islamic State took control of Northern Iraq. On the way to Mosul, the jihadist troops crossed the Sinjar, home to the Yazidi community. They separated families, killing the men and kidnapping the women and girls, with the intention of “offering” them to jihad fighters on the slave market. Ana is one of these women. Imprisoned and raped over the course of several years, she gave birth to a child, Marya, in captivity before finally being freed. Hawar, Our Banished Children tells the story of these children, known as “the bastards of Daesh”, nowadays all but invisible: there are no official records of their births, and their families refuse to take them in. The result of an investigation lasting almost seven years, this film by international correspondent, filmmaker and author Pascale Bourgaux, goes in search of these thousands of missing children. Giving a voice to these women who, after experiencing the worst kinds of horror, are once again separated from what they cherish the most, this moving documentary sheds light on a human tragedy that has been kept quiet for far too long.
Bastien Bento
Femmes contre Daech, 2016
Les Larmes du seigneur afghan, 2012
Iran, au régime des sanctions, 2013
GI's Violated, The Enemy Within, 2007
War in Iraq, Confessions of an American Tankist, 2003
War in Afghanistan, 2001
