Documentary “Life After Freedom” to Screen at American-Egyptian Film Festival in New York
The film highlights the struggles and resilience of Yazidi survivors rebuilding their lives after ISIS captivity.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — The documentary film “Life After Freedom”, which portrays the lives of Yazidi survivors rebuilding after their liberation from ISIS captivity, will be screened on October 30, 2025, at the American–Egyptian Arts and Film Festival (EAFF) in New York City.
Kurdish Filmmaker Shamal Hussein told Kurdistan24 that the 21-minute documentary has been officially selected to compete for the festival’s awards, which feature entries from numerous countries around the world.
“The documentary tells the stories of Yazidi men and women who, after surviving ISIS’s atrocities, have started their lives anew and even married to reclaim normalcy,” Hussein explained.
He added that the film sheds light on the deep scars left by ISIS’s brutality and the Yazidis’ ongoing struggle to heal, while also celebrating their courage and determination to rebuild.
The American–Egyptian Arts and Film Festival (EAFF) is an annual cultural event held in New York City that showcases cinematic works promoting artistic exchange and cross-cultural understanding.
Its inaugural edition was hosted in November 2021 at St. Francis College and featured 40 films from 11 countries, including feature films, shorts, and documentaries.
The screening of “Life After Freedom” comes at a time when the Yazidi community continues to recover from the genocide committed by ISIS in 2014, which saw thousands killed, enslaved, or displaced from their ancestral homeland in Sinjar (Shingal) town of the Kurdistan Region and the surrounding areas.
In one of the darkest chapters of recent history, thousands of Yazidis were massacred, while women and girls were abducted, sold into slavery, and subjected to horrific sexual violence. Boys were taken from their families and indoctrinated as child soldiers. The United Nations has officially recognized the campaign as genocide, citing ISIS’s clear intent to eradicate the Yazidi people.
Despite the defeat of ISIS, more than 200,000 Yazidis remain displaced across camps in the Kurdistan Region, many still searching for missing relatives or struggling to reintegrate into society.
Political pressure from the central government in Baghdad and the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia presence in Sinjar hindered the town's reconstruction efforts and prevented a safe return of the surviving Yazidis to their hometown.
By participating in international festivals like EAFF, Kurdish and Yazidi filmmakers aim to raise global awareness about the enduring impact of ISIS’s crimes and highlight the resilience of the Yazidi people.
The growing international recognition of such works reflects both the power of storytelling in documenting trauma and the crucial role of art in advancing dialogue, healing, and cultural preservation.
