Siege of Kobanê: A Story of Faith, Resistance, and Liberation

[DEU weiter unten]

It is 2014, and ISIS, which is at the peak of its strength and controls half of Syria and Iraq, is advancing towards the Kurdish Syrian city of Kobanê.
Zehra, who is 32 years old, is part of the female Kurdish forces there. Together with her fellow fighters, they are combating ISIS with all their strength in the rural areas around the city, but ISIS keeps advancing with its brutal forces.
As the war reaches the city centre, Dijwar, the commander in charge of Zehra and the forces in Kobane, frightens and runs away. Zehra, who had already lost many of her beloved comrades, finds herself compelled to become the commander in charge and leads the resistance in the besieged city of Kobanê.

ISIS advance is slowed down with the arrival of Gelhat, an experienced guerrilla fighter, and his comrades who are familiar with urban war. But this lasts only for a while: ISIS, stronger in numbers and weapons, besieges them.
Exhausted, losing territory, becoming fewer in numbers, and about to run out of ammunition, the Kurdish fighters come up with a plan to retake the city. Yet, the plan falls apart when ISIS fiercely launches a crushing attack at them from all sides. Gelhat and many others fall martyrs, but Zehra and the rest do not give up and resist with all their power. As ISIS members lose their spirit and start to disperse, Zehra leads the break of the siege. The liberation of the city begins.

This is a story of faith, resistance, heroism, sacrifice, love, comradeship, hope, betrayal, immorality, fear, and loss together with the intensity of war and revolution: “Nothing will ever be the same again”.

[DEU]
Dramatic film about the siege of the city of Kobanê in northern Syria, close to the border with Turkey. As the center of the Rojava region, the city has immense importance for the Kurdish population. In 2014, at the height of its power and in control of half of Syria and Iraq, IS besieged the city. Through the resistance of the self-defense forces YPG and YPJ, Kobanê became a symbol of hope around the world. The film follows the life of Zehra, a 32-year-old fighter. When the commander of her unit flees, she takes charge. With great effort, the Kurdish armed forces manage to break the siege of Kobanê against the military superiority of IS and liberate the city.

To the background:
Before 2011, around 54,000 people lived in the city of Kobane, most of whom were Kurds. The district of the same name does not belong administratively to Al-Hasakeh, but to Aleppo, and includes 384 villages. According to the Syrian government, in 2004 it had almost 200,000 inhabitants, whose number has almost doubled during the current civil war. The town of Kobane was created in 1912 as part of the construction work for the Baghdad Railway. Three years later, refugees from Armenia also settled there.

From September 15, 2014 to January 26, 2015, the city or region of Kobane was contested and IS tried to conquer the city. Finally, under pressure from international publicity, Ankara allowed 150 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan to come to Kobane to support the defenders. In January 2015, the Kurds managed to completely drive IS units out of Kobani.

Trigger warning: explicit depiction of physical violence, brutality and war
OmengU (Kurdish with English subtitles)
Regie: Özlem Yaşar
Mit Dijle Arjin, Ziya Çiçek, Asif Ahmed, Awar Ali, Mordem Firat
Rojava (Syria) 2022, 140 Min.

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