ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The movie No Paradise if You are Killed by a Woman will be premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, the director said on Thursday, as the movie plot revolves around a Kurdish female fighter who fights Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Mosul.
“I am very delighted that the world premiere of my new film will be in Venice, " Halkawt Mustafa told Rudaw, adding that the movie “showcases the courage and resilience of Kurdish women to the world.”
His statement came as the organizers of the festival held a press conference on Thursday, officially unveiling the full slate of selected films for the festival running September 2–12, with No Paradise if You are Killed by a Woman being one of the selected movies.
The movie tells the story of a young Peshmerga sniper who secretly infiltrates ISIS to rescue her younger sister.
Its title is originally derived from a belief held by some ISIS militants that being killed by a woman in the battlefield revokes the concept of martyrdom, thus depriving them of entering paradise.
Although not publicly stated by ISIS, many Kurdish female fighters in northeastern Syria (Rojava) have repeatedly said in interviews that they had witnessed the militants being distressed in combats against them, framing the situation as a fear from being stripped away of martyrdom in jihad.
Halkawt Mustafa interviewed a number of female Peshmerga fighters who fought against ISIS to produce the movie.
The Kurdish director's previous work was the documentary film Hiding Saddam Hussein, which became the highest-grossing documentary film in the history of Arab cinema at the box office.
Halkawt Mustafa is originally from the Kurdistan Region and resides in Norway. He gained international recognition in 2016 with the feature film El Clasico. The film was screened in over 56 countries and won several international awards.
