ON HER SHOULDERS

(director: Alexandria Bombach; cinematographer: Alexandria Bombach; editor: Alexandria Bombach; music: Patrick Jonsson; cast: Nadia Murad, Amal Clooney; Runtime: 94; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Hayley Pappas, Brock Williams; RYOT Films/OscilloscopeLaboratories; 2018-USA-In English and Kurdish/Arabic, with English subtitles)

“The terrifying story of the strong-willed Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi genocide and ISIS sexual slavery survivor.“

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Alexandria Bombach (“Frame by Frame”) sensitively tells the terrifying story of the strong-willed Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi genocide and ISIS sexual slavery survivor. She survived the 2014 genocide of the Yazidis in Northern Iraq while her relatives were murdered. In 2014 she escaped her ISIS captors to become a relentless activist for her people, even giving testimony before the U.N. in a three-minute speech on her life.

The compelling documentary shows the intrepid Nobel Prize winner advocating for her people with other governments and journalists from around the world and in visits to Yazidi refugee camps.Murad has become the international face of the Yazidis, a religious minority group in Iraq that was targeted for genocide by the evil Islamic State. Many survivors of the attacks relocated to Yazidi refugee camps in Europe. But 3,000 women and girls still are held as sex slaves by the Islamic State. Murad, with the help of Amal Clooney, the celebrated human rights lawyer who is married to George Clooney, is currently taking legal action against the ISIS terrorists responsible for the genocide.

It’s a moving current events documentary, one that highlights Murad’s new activism but goes light on historical context.

REVIEWED ON 11/13/2018 GRADE: B    https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/