COMMANDER ARIAN

COMANDANTE ARIAN, UNA HISTORIA DE MUJERES, GUERRA Y LIBERTAD

By Alba SOTORRA CLUA

ALBA SOTORRA S.L. - as PROD

Documentary - Completed 2018

Hit by 5 bullets, commander Arian experiences the cost of war in the flesh as she is forced to redefine her role in the struggle for women's freedom.

Festivals
& Awards

Sao Paulo IFF 2018
New Directors Competition Nominee
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2018
Best International Documentary Nominee
Sheffield International Documentary Festival 2018
Best Documentary Nominee
    • Year of production
    • 2018
    • Genres
    • Documentary, Drama, True Story
    • Countries
    • SPAIN, GERMANY, KURDISTAN
    • Languages
    • SPANISH, KURDISH
    • Duration
    • 85 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Alba SOTORRA CLUA
    • Producer(s)
    • Alba SOTORRA (ALBA SOTORRA S.L.)
    • Synopsis
    • Commander Arian is part of the YPJ, Women’s Protection Units, the all-female army fighting in Syria for women’s freedom against the most patriarchal and brutal enemy of all: ISIS. Having been hit by 5 bullets, now as she struggles to recover, she looks back on her last mission to liberate the city of Kobane from its three-year-long siege under ISIS.

      The film is built in two layers: the past, where director Alba Sotorra follows Commander Arian for months across the barren plains of Syrian countryside on her last mission, throwing us into the day-to-day life of YPJ fighters on the frontline, and the present, where Commander Arian fights to recover from the visible and the invisible wounds of war, far away from her comrades.

      For Arian and her comrades, war is a path to emancipation from a deeply patriarchal society. As they launch a military operation to end the siege, we discover these female fighters’ lives; their sacrifices, their dreams and their ideals, along the road to Kobane, where they will ultimately arrive as liberators. Yet freedom and emancipation comes at a high price for everybody. Arian has survived, but like many other wounded comrades, she will have to find new ways to fight for women’s freedom after years at war.