The Phantom Pain of Rojava

Iran, January 16th, 1979. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees after being overthrown. Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Tehran and proclaims the Islamic Republic on April 1st, 1979. In the same year, Saddam Hussein seizes power in Iraq and, after several border skirmishes, attacks Iran on September 22nd, 1980, initiating a cruel war that will last eight years. Since its outbreak, correspondent Saeid Sadeghi documented it from its beginning to its bitter end.

A documentary that takes us into one of the world’s most unique settings: an Afghan women's prison. A prison where prisoners neither regret nor are ashamed of the 'crimes' they have been locked up for. These women have committed 'moral crimes'. With their lives at stake they fled the violence for the sake of dignity and love.

In a small attic in the middle of the woods somewhere in Dalarna, Sussie lives in her very own doll house. Like Alice in Wonderland, who falls into a rabbit hole, Sussie disappears into a world full of extraterrestrial beings and stories.