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12hungrymonkeys
Reviews
Mediha (2023)
Intimate and Uplifting
Mediha is a striking story about facing and wrestling with trauma. It's about taking back control, both of one's own life and the way it is shared. Mediha Ibrahim Alhamad shares her story directly, piece by piece, through video diaries in a way that I haven't seen in film before. As she delves into her time being trafficked by ISIS, she also uses these details to propel the investigation into her captor and her missing family. It's difficult enough to imagine a teenager carrying the burden of this trauma alone, but the strength to do just that, seek justice, and be there as a sister and surrogate mother to her two rescued brothers seems unimaginable; and that responsibility only grows from there!
Through the use of Mediha's self-footage and other impressive techniques, director Hasan Oswald sets an atmosphere that's simply inescapable. You're there. It's a challenging history to tell with a constantly developing future, but he paces it all perfectly; even someone who's never heard of the Yazidi people can digest their gut-wrenching plight and enjoy every victory with every step toward justice.