Preview Screening: Descendants of an Angel + Panel Discussion

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with editing director and reporter Henry Donovan, set manager Frederic Olofsson and creative director David Ben Koerzdoerfer.

On 3 August 2014, Daesh militants attacked and took over Sinjar in northern Iraq, a Kurdish-controlled town that was predominantly inhabited by Yazidis.

It was a normal, unbearably hot August day and young Yazidi girl Rukan (11) and her friends had decided to play in the shade, building toys and playing hide and seek, when suddenly they heard cars and approaching gun fire. The genocide against the Yazidis was unfolding – the 74th of its kind.

The so-called Islamic State would brutally slaughter men and women, kidnap the girls and leave the rest of the families with nothing. As thousands of civilians fled to the Sinjar Mountains to find safety, they found themselves stranded without food and water.

Two years on, the plight of the Yazidis has disappeared from international attention. In making Descendants of an Angel – the first feature length documentary focusing on the genocide – the team at Dokumanity films travelled to Shingal, Iraq. They met with Yazidi commanders that were still there and refugees, young and old, that had to leave everything behind. Capturing first-hand accounts of the genocide and the struggles Yazidi refugees are continuing to face, Descendants of an Angel is an invaluable and sensitive record of the 2014 genocide that is carried by the voices of its survivors.

Production company: Dokumanity Films
Country: Germany
Year: 2016