Underplayed Gems

Gulistan, Land of Roses (2016)

Gulistan, Land of Roses poster
Original title
گوڵستان، خاکی گوڵەکان
Directed by
Zaynê Akyol
Genre
documentary film
Country
Canada
Runtime
1h 26m
Rated
14A
Rating
7.2 of 10 from 9 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

This documentary follows women fighting with the Kurdistan Workers' Party against ISIL in Iraqi Kurdistan. It shows their daily lives in combat and their memories of a woman named Gulîstan who inspired them.

contemplativesomberobservationalintimaterawcerebralpoignantgrounded

What happens

Gulîstan, Land of Roses (French title: Gulîstan, terre de roses) is a 2016 feature-length documentary film about women guerillas in a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Free Women's Unit, in combat against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), directed by the Kurdish Montreal filmmaker Zaynê Akyol. Shot in Iraqi Kurdistan, the film is co-produced by Montreal's Périphéria Productions, Germany's MitosFilm and the National Film Board of Canada. The film was conceived and named for a woman, Gulîstan, who had been a role model for the director in her adopted home in Montreal, until she left to fight with the PKK. Akyol went to Iraq in 2010 in an unsuccessful effort to find her and make a film about her. Unable to locate Gulîstan, she found women who knew her, and the focus of the documentary shifted to telling Gulîstan's story through their memories of her. However, when she returned to Iraq to film in 2014, some of the women had died, while others were in combat. That made the focus of the film shift yet again to documenting the experiences of women like Gulîstan. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.