Director Aly Yeganeh’s new film tells the story of a Kurdish child kidnapped and raped by Daesh terrorists. She tries to rebuild herself in France, in a protective world, but is a new start really possible?
Sibel’s Silence is Aly Yeganeh’s latest film, shot between Tunisia and the town of Uzerche, in Corrèze. It tells the true story of the children of Sinjar, in the northwest of Iraq, the capital of the Yazidis.
In 2014, Daesh attacked this community whose beliefs are considered diabolical by terrorists. Thousands of young girls are kidnapped, forced into sexual slavery, and sometimes ultimately sold. This is the case of Sibel who is taken in in a French village.
On the eve of the film’s theatrical release, Aly Yeganeh answered our questions.
“We were looking for a peaceful and pretty town in the center of France, where the population has nothing to do with this outside world. I needed a house of a certain size which had to be located in front of a river. It symbolizes things which continue, like the war, which does not stop We searched for several months to find a house, and we found it in Uzerche. I thank the entire population. The town was at the rhythm of the film for a month. “
“We take a traumatized young girl to Uzerche who has been through hell. She finds herself in a peaceful town, in a bourgeois house, owned by someone who has money. The essential question of the film is : can a person who has experienced such violence have a normal life? We are talking about a ten year old girl… Sibel was bought by a Kurdish and French woman who had the means to give to this girl? girl a hope. But can we still give hope to children like these?”
Can a person who has experienced such violence have a normal life?
Aly Yeganeh, director
“This massacre was recognized by the United Nations as a genocide. Is it the last genocide of the century? I hope so. Will we no longer see rape as an instrument of war ?I hope so. But given what’s happening in the world today, I don’t think they’ll be the last.”
