Baghdad — In an important scene in the 2021 documentary Sabaya, two men rescue a young woman named Leila from a Syrian detention camp for a family of ISIS fighters, bundling her in a car and behind. I drove safely when the bullet was fired at.
In interviews with the BBC Radio and others, the film’s Iraqi-Swedish director, Hogil Hirori, rescued a young woman from the Alhor detention camp, one of thousands of women and girls. He talked about tension and fear of riding. From the Yazid religious minority in Iraq, who had been sexually enslaved by ISIS.
The dramatic scene helped Swedish government-sponsored films win illustrious reviews and awards, including the Best Director Award for foreign documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival last year. However, after a survey by a Swedish magazine, Kvartal, Hirori admitted that he wasn’t there when Leila was released, that he replaced another woman, and that he lied to the BBC interviewer.
Hospitalization follows last year’s New York Times findings that many traumatized women did not agree or refuse to appear in the film first, but were included anyway.The director’s admission fee is Also updated the accusation The documentary downplayed the forced separation between mothers and young children born during ISIS slavery and turned the man responsible for the separation into a hero to save them.
Yazid women sexually enslaved by ISIS were welcomed by their community after ISIS was defeated, but children were not. Some women did not want children, but in most cases forced separation had serious consequences, including attempted suicide.
In a statement released after Kvartal’s investigation, Hirori He admitted that he portrayed Leila’s escape “using the rescue scene of another woman I participated in.”He said the woman presented as The main character, Leila, did not mention her in the documentary because she did not want to be filmed after the rescue.
He spoke in Swedish through an interpreter and told the BBC Radio last year that “it was a reality, so it was important to shoot it when it was happening.” In one of several interviews he expressed the same feelings, he also talked about a Yazid woman. “They are not just numbers, they are people like you and me.”
The BBC has removed a long interview from its website in response to an inquiry from the press. A BBC spokesman said it was under review. Hirori said in his statement that he regrets not telling the BBC the truth about the rescue scene.
Kvartal’s timeline also shows that audio was inserted from an event that occurred months or weeks later in three scenes, including a news report on the fight against ISIS and the invasion of Turkey. In at least one scene, the movie’s protagonist reacts to news from a car radio that he couldn’t hear.
Hirori and Film Producer Antonio Russo Melenda, former Swedish Film Institute Commissioner, He said he was deeply involved in film editingDid not respond to a request for comment by the Times.
In a statement after Kvartal’s investigation, Hirori said the film was not intended for journalism, and the Swedish documentary tradition allowed filmmakers to “express their own perspective on events.” I did.
Christina Ericsson, Communication Officer Swedish Film Institute“We follow and welcome the discussion about the role of documentary, but so far nothing has emerged that gives us a reason to act in connection with the film.” Refused to reveal whether it had steps to control the authenticity of the funded documentary film.
The issue of forced separation is the only issue that is most controversial among Yazidis. The Yazid Home Center, featured in Sabaya, was responsible for finding and caring for hundreds of Iraqi Yazidi who were released from ISIS prisoners of war, but the organization was from Iraqi Yazid elders. We acted according to the instructions and arranged for the children to be taken away from their mother. Most were sent to orphanages in northeastern Syria, and women returning to Iraq were not allowed to visit.
Almost all women were told that they had to give up their children to go home after being rescued from Alhor camp. Like one of the “Sabaya” women, the women were also mistakenly told that the separation was temporary.
Hirori said there was no space in the film to tackle this issue. “My focus is on documenting how these women and girls were saved, not on the whole of giving up children,” he said in an interview with the Times last year. rice field.
Sherisan Minwara, a human rights lawyer based in Erbil, Iraq, who has worked extensively with survivors of the Yazidis massacre, said: I broke up before returning to my Iraqi family. Some women were afraid to be separated from their children and decided to stay in Syria’s detention camp instead of being rescued.
A limited number of liberated Yazid women reunited with their children. Almost all of them were moved to other countries because their mothers and their children faced threats from the Iraqi Yazidi community.
“The director doesn’t have to show the situation of being completely invented and false in the film,” said Jennifer, director of San Francisco’s nonprofit Re-Present Media, which advocates storytelling from an underrated community. Crystal Chain says. .. Omitting important information means that viewers can “draw the wrong conclusions,” she said.
The documentary was rejected at the Human Rights Film Festival last year due to concerns about the consent of traumatized ISIS survivors, but was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
A few months after the release of Sabaya, the filmmakers got written consent, but most women don’t understand it in the language. The agreement allows filmmakers to permanently use their names, stories and all footage for any project.
“There are certain types of things that look exciting or dramatic in some way, or have some sort of heroic result,” Chien said. “This kind of thing is very appealing to those who make funding and programming decisions, even if they don’t know anything about the actual situation in the area or whether the footage they are getting can be obtained with informed consent. . “
Sangar Khaleel Contributed to reports from Iraqi Erbil.
