Catalogue Impact Days
fifdh
De Pascale Bourgaux

Hawar, Our Banished Children

Hawar, nos enfants bannis
Image du film Hawar, Our Banished Children - FIFDH 2024
IMPACT DAYS

Ana traverse le Kurdistan en secret pour voir sa fille Marya, qu’elle n’a pas vue depuis quatre ans. Comme toutes les autres survivantes yazidies kidnappées en 2014, elle a été contrainte par sa communauté d’abandonner son enfant née des viols des djihadistes d’ISIS. Fruit de huit années d’enquête en Irak et en Syrie, Hawar, nos enfants bannis est le premier film à lever le voile sur ce véritable tabou.

Section : Impact Days
Pays : Irak, Syrie
Langues originales : arabe, anglais, kurde, kurmandji
Réalisation
Pascale Bourgaux (Belgique)
Production
Natacha Hostyn (Belgique)
Isabelle Truc (Belgique)
Elisa Garbar (Suisse)
Louise Productions
IOTA PRODUCTION
Durée
75'’
Statut de production
Terminé
Finalisé en
Avril 2023
Impact Statement
For the first time, a Yazidi mother tells her story and gives voice to all the Yazidi survivors deprived of their children born from the rapes by the ISIS jihadists. Those children don’t have any official existence in Iraq and Syria. They live in orphanages, not knowing that their mothers are crying for them. We aim to shed light on this human tragedy, urgently give visibility to these children as their true identity risks disappearing, and supporting the moderate Yazidi personalities and families who would accept those children born of rapes.
Rangeen, 23, survivor and mother of two : ‘I was told that if I wanted to see my mother and father, I would never see my children again’. We wish to encourage dialogue around taboos such as rape, children's and women's rights, patriarchy and war.
Impact Goals
  1. Help the Yazidis to start the debate inside their community.
  2. Help those mother-survivors to find their forcibly abandoned children and help them to live with them in Iraq, Syria or abroad.
  3. Break the taboo and encourage the official authorities in Kurdistan, Iraq and the International Community to stop the hypocrisy and face their responsibilities (many jihadists-rapists are from Europe and America).
  4. More generally, broaden the debate on the children born of war-rapes.
  5. Question the patriarchy which continues to dominate women's lives in the region.
  6. Remind the world of the existence of the Yazidi community and show the difficulties of existing as a minority in Iraq and Syria.
Impact Strategy
    We aim to hold more screenings and debates with the Yazidi diaspora in Europe and America and to show the film to Yazidi communities in Iraq and Syria. We wish to take the film to international institutions and decision makers who can influence higher powers and create and pass laws, and to national governments of the countries from where the ISIS Jihadists originally come from. We hope to screen the long (1h10) or short (50’) versions at the European Parliament, in cinemas, cultural centres and local communities as well as with more broadcasters and streaming platforms worldwide.
Contact
Contact principal
IOTA PRODUCTION: contact@iotaproduction.com

Organisations
Amnesty international
La ligue des droits humains
Stand Speak Rise Up!
Women in Media FIPADOC

Broadcasters
PROXIMUS
RTBF
TV5 Monde

Distributions and sales
CAT&Docs
Screenbox

Others
Yazidi community in Belgium

Organisations
Amnesty international
La ligue des droits humains
Stand Speak Rise Up!
Women in Media FIPADOC

Broadcasters
PROXIMUS
RTBF
TV5 Monde

Distributions and sales
CAT&Docs
Screenbox

Others
Yazidi community in Belgium