Hasan Oswald directed and Emma Thompson produced Mediha, which tracks a 15-year-old Yazidi girl after she escaped ISIS slavery.
The documentary won the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC and shows her rebuilding her life while raising her younger brothers. Oswald’s camera records her survival through her own words and perspective, letting her tell her story directly.
The film shows its emotional strength during small instances of perseverance and tentative optimism. Mediha focuses on recovery and depicts both sorrow and her search for legal recourse and human connection.
The Weight of Silence: Mediha’s Story in Three Acts
In Sinjar before 2014, Mediha lived a simple life connected to her land and Yazidi background. The Yazidi people, a minority group with beliefs combining parts of Islam, Zoroastrianism, and old Mesopotamian practices, faced misunderstanding and isolation throughout their past. They lived where different cultures met, often seen as religious outcasts.
For Mediha’s family, being Yazidi meant living simply – their beliefs and past were part of daily life, like the mountains near their village. ISIS aimed to wipe out both the people and their way of life. Their attack targeted the Yazidis’ ties to their home and beliefs.
ISIS attacked Sinjar in August 2014. They killed men in groups and left them in shared graves. They took women and girls as slaves. They forced boys to join their ranks. This destroyed everything Mediha knew – her town, family, and safety.
ISIS took Mediha, aged 10, from her parents and siblings. They sold her several times as a slave. She keeps much hidden – she never tells her brothers what she went through. This hidden pain shows how deep wounds can be.
Mediha got away at age 15. She lives in a Northern Iraq refugee camp with her brothers, Ghazwan and Adnan. She looks after them while dealing with her own pain.
She spends time taking care of small things – feeding birds, waking up her brothers who dream of their old home. She looks for her missing mother and brother, Bazan, through endless paperwork and searches. She tries to make a new life while parts of her old one stay lost.
The camp offers little comfort. Mediha keeps going, though it drains her. The camp stays a middle ground where sad memories mix with small hopes.
Through Her Eyes: The Camera as Witness and Weapon
Hasan Oswald gave Mediha a camera, shifting the usual way stories are told. Many films show survivors of violence as symbols in political talks, but Mediha could now tell her own story. The camera became her way to show her experiences.
She filmed her own life rather than being filmed by others. She recorded sad times and happy ones – a butterfly on a flower, her brothers playing near water. These scenes showed life going on after terrible events. Through her lens, Mediha built new memories.
Mediha’s recordings feel real and raw. The camera moves, things blur, yet the feelings come through clearly. These rough edges make the film feel true.
She often filmed nature: mountains far away, butterflies flying in the camp. These shots showed her wish for space and beauty while stuck in the camp. The scenes of nature reminded her that life kept going.
Oswald stayed in the background of his film. He let Mediha speak and show things her way, avoiding making himself look like a hero helping people in need. He put her videos together into a story that felt natural and true.
The film mixes Mediha’s private world with things everyone can relate to. Oswald shows her story without changing its meaning. They worked together to show what happened.
A Genocide in Fragments: The Yazidi Tragedy and the Complex Path to Reunion
The 2014 attack on Yazidis aimed to remove these people from history. ISIS struck Sinjar with planned violence against the Yazidi people. They shot men and put their bodies in big graves that mark the ground now. They took women and girls, sold them, and made them change their religion. They stole boys from their families and trained them to fight.
These acts went past simple war crimes – they tried to erase Yazidi culture. This group practiced a mix of Zoroastrian, Islamic, and old Middle Eastern beliefs. Many groups hurt them before – first old rulers, then new attackers. The attacks hurt both people and their way of life, stopping them from keeping their customs alive.
The effects stay strong. Many Yazidis can’t go home, their towns broken or gone. Many families split up – some dead, some lost, some trapped far away. People who made it back still carry deep wounds that time hasn’t fixed.
People looking for Yazidi families face many dangers. They look through ISIS areas and secret places to find those taken. Many stay trapped, with new names, owned by new families. One searcher called it “an ocean” of people to find.
Finding people brings mixed feelings. Some kids now believe what their captors taught them. Some made links with the families that bought them. Mediha keeps looking for her family through endless papers and red tape, scared she might never find them.
Meeting again brings both happiness and pain. People feel good seeing each other but know things changed forever. The attacks broke lives apart, leaving pieces that don’t match anymore.
Scars Beneath the Surface: Trauma, Resilience, and the Unsteady Architecture of Hope
Pain runs through Mediha like a shadow that stays. Hasan Oswald’s film shows this in small ways: she flinches at prayer sounds, her body tenses like she expects something bad. The pain stays soft, hidden in her quiet moments and the way she looks away talking about her time as a prisoner.
People often rush survivors like Mediha to heal fast, acting like years of being held and treated badly could be forgotten. This happens often after wars end. People wanted Holocaust survivors and war veterans to stop talking about their pain – maybe since it makes everyone feel bad.
Pain stays and changes shape. Small things bring it back: prayers, kids asking questions. Living can feel wrong when others died.
Mediha stays strong while caring for her brothers, Ghazwan and Adnan. She acts like their mother though she’s very young. The three stick together, finding short happy times among their sadness.
The film shows her strength as real and raw. She feels weak sometimes. She wants to go back to Sinjar and see her mother and little brother again. This wish brings both good and bad feelings.
She keeps hoping anyway. She films butterflies and mountains near the camp, making pictures of a better time. These videos show how people can stay alive through hard times.
Living through bad times alone can’t stop new fights. Mediha tries legal ways to fix things, but her brothers want revenge. They talk about fighting back. Their anger could start new problems if no one helps them heal.
This happens lots of places. South Africa and Rwanda saw this too: how do you stop people wanting revenge? Mediha shows us this stays hard. The film makes us see that getting better takes many steps, with no sure way forward.
Fragments of Light: Cinematography and the Art of Bearing Witness
Two filming styles mix in Mediha: Hasan Oswald’s watching eye and Mediha’s raw, close videos. These two ways of seeing show life outside and inside the camp, and how a young girl stays strong.
Oswald films from far away, giving space to what happens. The camp looks gray and dusty, showing how Mediha and her brothers live between places – not at home, not safe either. Some pretty things break through: mountains far away, morning light. These nature shots hint at life outside the camp.
Mediha’s videos shake and blur, making them real. She films her brothers playing or follows butterflies, turning small moments into special ones. The mix of Oswald’s clean shots and Mediha’s quick videos shows both hard times and small hopes.
Oswald steps back and listens. He lets Mediha lead the story. She tells it herself – he helps tell it. Giving her the camera shows trust and respect, different from most documentaries.
The film moves between small moments and big events, from brothers laughing to scary ISIS camps. This shows Mediha as more than someone who lived through bad things; she shows us about living after violence, finding fair treatment, and dealing with past hurts.
Echoes of Survival: Emotional Resonance and Broader Significance
Mediha stays with viewers after watching, like a sore spot that won’t fade. The film speaks softly but touches deeply. She shows her pain, wishes, and toughness without hiding. People watching must pay attention.
Some scenes hit hard. She wants to go back to Sinjar so badly you can feel it. She lives each day, staying alive when others tried to stop her. These parts make people see her as real, as someone who went through awful things.
The film saves stories that matter. Through Mediha’s words, we learn about what ISIS did to Yazidi people, and how they try to live now. It brings light to stories some want forgotten.
The film has sad parts but keeps some hope. Mediha stays strong, helps her brothers, and keeps looking for her family. She makes people stop and look at what happened, teaching them about living through hard times.
The Review
Mediha
Mediha shows us close up how people live after terrible things happen. She films her own life while Hasan Oswald helps tell her story with care. The film goes past just showing facts - it tells what one person saw and shows how big groups hurt others. Many people skip these stories, but this one makes them listen. The film has heavy parts, yet small bright spots shine through when people help each other, making us watch and hold onto what we see.
PROS
- Authentic and deeply personal storytelling through Mediha’s perspective.
- Empathetic direction that prioritizes the voice of the survivor.
- Powerful visual interplay between raw, unfiltered footage and polished cinematography.
- Illuminates the broader geopolitical significance of the Yazidi genocide.
- Balances harrowing realities with moments of fragile hope and beauty.
CONS
- The emotional weight may feel overwhelming for some viewers.
- Limited focus on broader systemic responses to the Yazidi crisis.
- Pacing occasionally lingers, which could test audience patience.
