Gulistan, Land of Roses

Female Kurdish guerrillas fighting the Islamic State have received a lot of media coverage - but you've never seen these revolutionary women portrayed like this. With painterly beauty, filmmaker Zaynê Akyol brings us into the lives of an all-female brigade. Each shot is carefully composed, a considerable feat given that most of the film takes place in the rough mountains and deserts of Kurdistan. The battlefield is one of the only places these women can escape constricting gender roles. Fierce and proud, they instill fear in their enemy, not only for their bravery and skill, but also because, for Daesh (also known as ISIS) soldiers, dying at the hands of a woman means they'll never reach paradise. In turn, the women live in fear of being taken as spoils of war, believing that "every woman left to the mercy of man is condemned to slavery." (Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival)