Rome (AsiaNews) – Entitled "Our Sky, Our Land”, this film on the memory of the Kurdish massacre carried out by Sadddam Hussein has the rhythm of a war documentary and yet the simple and profound elegance of a personal story.
The authors are four young filmmakers: Pietro Gualandi, Francesco and Edoardo Picciolo, Antonio Spano. With a dry and precise style, and great craftsmanship, they describe the phases of the Kurdish genocide: the deportations (of the 1970s), the mass graves in the aerial attacks with poison gas (Anfal, 1988), the slaughter of young children and women, gunned down by the Iraqi dictator’s army (1991). It is estimated that over 400 thousand Kurds were massacred or deported.
The film relies on documentation of the time, but especially the testimony of survivors, marked by suffering, but also by their desire to live and to continue the tradition of their people, dispersed by the international powers in four countries: Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran.
The memories and the most chilling sequences are punctuated by airy pictures of the Kurdish mountains, the sounds and the celebration of Nowruz, New Year, a new sign of life after the experience of death.
The film is an important tool for understanding the Iraq of today and an essential aid for each school.
Contact: spano.antonio @ gmail.com