On Her Shoulders

Frightening, enlightening, harrowing, yet hopeful, 'On her Shoulders' is a wonderful documentary chronicling the Yazidi people of Iraq and the young lady who is trying to carry them to freedom Nadia Murad. Murad was taken by ISIS who did horrible things to her, luckily she escaped and is telling her horrific story in order to get safety for her friends, family, and fellow Yazidis. The story does not at all go into who helped create ISIS by starting a needless war which I think everyone must understand how much that poor decision led to a genocide. This movie works on many levels, but perhaps the best is the reluctance of Murad to be a hero. She has a genuine charm and innocence that make her someone to root for. It's dreary and at times a tearful watch, but it's important to be informed and enlightened or else we all end up in the dark. Final Score: 9.0/10

Moving account of the extraordinary work by this campaigner for an important cause

This could be the best movie I have seen in years.

‪On Her Shoulders is a powerful reminder of the devastation happening across the world that we just don’t talk about. It’s also a portrait of one woman’s remarkable courage and pain.‬ ‪The film accomplishes both things so well: informing us of the genocide and showing us a hero.‬

Tonight I went to the Curzon Bloomsbury to watch 'On Her Shoulders', a documentary that follows the journey of Nadia Murad, a survivor of the 2014 Yazidi genocide, activist, and the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize 2018. It's a film that I recommend you all to watch. 'On Her Shoulders' is the story about the interplay between desperation and determination. It is the story of Nadia's quiet but persistent fight for the recognition of, and justice for, herself, her family, and the Yazidis people. It's the story of a reluctant leader, who chose to shoulder this unyielding burden, to stand as a symbol of hope, when many others have abandoned theirs. Before I watched this film, I knew a little about the Yazidis, I knew that genocides are happening around the world, even at this very moment. There's the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, and the genocide in South Sudan is still ongoing. I knew all that. But these issues are always placed on the back of my mind. After all, talking and thinking about refugees, death, enslavement, and rape are very heavy and uncomfortable topics. And we tend to shy away from difficult and uncomfortable things. Nadia's story comes from a very different (and more difficult) part of the world than we're accustomed to; and initially, it can seem very detached from our everyday lives. But by attending the screening, it forced me to confront this uncomfortable reality, and realise that someone else's reality is actually our collective reality. The cinematography, film score and editing of the film were OK, nothing spectacular. I believe the director (Alexandria Bombach) purposefully striped everything back to not take anything away from the story. This would explain the 7.1/10 score (good, but not great) it currently has on IMDb. But you should watch it not because of how it's directed/edited, but because of the importance of the story. It's an invitation for you to spend 95 minutes to walk in her shoes and understand their struggle. It'll help you to be more empathetic, to see everything in a broader perspective, and perhaps even inspire you to act.

The best documentary I have ever seen not only for the content but for what content was left out. The director does a phenomenal job portraying a side that we simply don't see/hear when people sacrifice their life. Do yourself and humanity a favour and go watch this documentary.