Impact Days Catalogue
fifdh
By Pascale Bourgaux

Hawar, Our Banished Children

Hawar, nos enfants bannis
Hawar, nos enfants bannis
Impact days 2023 Movie
IMPACT DAYS

“Ana” crosses Kurdistan, in secret, to see her daughter Marya, whom she has not seen for 4 years. Like all the other Yazidi survivors, kidnapped in 2014, she was forced by her community to abandon her child born out of the rapes by ISIS jihadists. The fruit of eight years of investigations in Iraq and Syria, Hawar, our Banished Children is the first film to break this taboo.

Section : Impact Days
Country : Iraq, Syria
Original languages : Arabic, English, Kurdish, Kurmanji
Director
Pascale Bourgaux (Belgium)
Producers
Natacha Hostyn (Belgium)
Isabelle Truc (Belgium)
Elisa Garbar (Switzerland)
Louise Productions
IOTA PRODUCTION
Completion
April 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
Primary contact
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