Ala Hoshyar Tayyeb

In October of 2016 the battle for Mosul, the Islamic State's self-proclaimed capital in northern Iraq, began. With unprecedented access, Bernard-Henri Lévy and his team follow the Kurdish units and the Iraqi special Golden Division. From street to street, they fight together to regain this city of two million inhabitants. Though successful, the hopes of the Kurdish fighters might not always align with those of their allies.

A deminer in the war against Daesh, a Kurdish fighter loses his hand in an accident. He became a taxi driver but, not having a driving license for the disabled, the police seized his vehicle. Under pressure from his wife who wants him to go to Europe, the man is ready for anything...

In December 2021, a female victim's body was discovered and disposed of in a public street in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. Her name was Dekan. Dekan’s corpse was never claimed by family or friends and remained in the morgue for several months. Dekan’s fate like many other female victims ended in the unmarked section of the graveyard, which is often designated for female victims of "honor killings."

From July to December 2015, with a camera team in tow, Bernard-Henri Lévy journeyed 1,000 km along the frontline separating Iraqi Kurdistan from Islamic State troops. The journey resulted in an illustrated logbook offering a special insight into an unfinished war with a global impact. Alongside the Peshmergas – Kurdish fighters imbued with a spirit of unfailing determination in their fight against obscurantism and jihadism, the film takes us from the heights of Mosul to the heart of the Sinjar mountains, passing the last Christian monasteries threatened with destruction along the way. A tale peopled by real characters, men and women whose faces are rarely seen...