The Dark Wind

A film about innocent love, traditional values and the collision of conflicting religious beliefs, The Dark Wind is the third feature film by Hussein Hassan, a renowned actor and writer in Kurdistan, Iraq making its international premiere at the Busan International Film Festival this year. Young Reko lives in Ezidi, Shingal in Iraq, and is engaged to Pero. One day, Pero is abducted and sold to a slave market by IS. Reko manages to find her and bring her back to the refugee camp, but the village people, including Pero's own parents, ostracize her. When it is revealed that she was raped and conceived a baby, her father, who cherishes the honor of his family more than anything, becomes even icier, driving Pero to despair. The only people who care about Pero are Reko and Pero's mother. Pero's pain is worsened by being surrounded by people who lost everything except for their stifling lives. The loss of mental and economical stability drives them to hate Pero even more. In telling all these stories, Hassan successfully develops a conflicting narrative structure while maintaining a rational eye throughout the film in order to emphasize the reality of the tragedy. All around the world, women are often the victims of atrocious crimes of war and terror, and Hassan also makes it clear this tragedy is not limited to Ezidi, but is contemporary and universal to all humankind. (Busan International Film Festival)