Sisters in Arms: The Powerful True Story Behind the Film

Released in 2018 on big screens, the film “Sisters in Arms” caused a sensation. Signed by Caroline Fourest, the feature film brings together a five-star cast including Dilan Gwyn, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel and Camélia Jordana. The latter two play respectively Yael and Kenza, two young French women who join an international brigade that leaves to fight alongside Kurdish fighters. In August 2014, Daesh attacked villages in western Iraq and terrorized the Yazidi minority, one of the oldest religions in Mesopotamia. 19-year-old Zara, who was planning to study in the United States and whose father is killed before her eyes, is taken to be sold as a sex slave. She then crosses paths with Kenza. Coming from very different cultures but deeply united, these Sisters in Arms will heal their wounds by discovering their strength and the fear they inspire in their adversaries.

While she had a desire for cinema for a long time, Caroline Fourest chose to draw inspiration from real events for her film. According to him, his choice fell on this tragedy of the Yazidis because it concentrates all the dramas of our time and all the subjects which agitate it, in particular the question of women and that of fanaticism. “It’s a very recent genocide, August 2014, but what happened there is reminiscent of the worst of the 20th century. Yazidi men were shot, women killed or gang raped. The youngest were deported as sex slaves. Some escaped. Others enlisted as soldiers. They saw other women, sometimes their sisters, taking action to get revenge. This incredible reversal, the fact of going from victim to warrior, is at the heart of the film”she explained.

“Sisters in Arms”: the director closest to the truth

To be as close as possible to the truth, the director visited Iraqi Kurdistan three times, before, during and after the recapture of Mosul. Thanks to a war reporter friend who lived there, Jérémy André, she was able to meet both survivors and fighters of all stripes: Peshmerga, PAK, YPJ… “Our Yazidi fixer, Shahin, himself survived the 2014 genocide. He carried his mother on his shoulders to take refuge in the mountains. He died trying to save a little Arab girl in Mosul. I gave his first name to Zara’s brother in the film”confided the filmmaker.