As grim as Mediha, her family, and those in her position situation is in Hasan Oswald’s excellent Mediha, the continued feeling of hope and eventual healing pushes its way through. Oswald lets Mediha and people like her reclaim their narrative.

Mediha, a teenage Yazidi girl who has recently returned from ISIS captivity, turns the camera on herself to process her trauma while rescuers search for her missing family members.

Hasan Oswald juggles two stories at the same time with Mediha. Showing us how children who have been through so much can heal and, with help, ensure that all is not lost for them and that they have a positive future that doesn’t allow what happened to them to define them. It also shows us the Herculean efforts that those who save and help these children and families exhibit daily.

When Oswald cuts back and forth to Mediha’s rescuers, the film completely alters how we thought it would go. Instead, what the audience thought was going to be a meditative and intimate piece about Mediha and her brothers Ghazwan and Adnan finding themselves after what they had gone through and trying to piece together a life thanks to rehabilitation from their trauma. We are thrown into a film that shows us the efforts of those who saved Mediha and how they try to find her mother and youngest brother.

With ISIS kidnapping so many people over the years, it becomes an excruciating task to find those Yazidi women and children who have been taken. Selling people to slavery, whether it be for sex or to raise a child army, you are horrified. Their task, which at times can be pretty perilous as they enter ISIS-controlled camps, has them with their massive folders, encounter challenges like trying to find people who have not only had their name changed but been moved to multiple countries. Making it nearly impossible to find and return them to their rightful home.

Oswald’s decision to give Mediha the camera and for her to document her daily life is such an inspired decision. We see a young traumatised person try and keep going, to try and see the positives in life and the possibilities her new future now holds. She and her brothers capture emotionally wrecking moments that take you an extra second to recover. There is so much trauma present but also so much hope. Oswald and editor Kait Plum have ensured that the prominence of hope never leaves us throughout both threads, and it is one of the film’s main strengths.

Having two such strong narratives move along so well is no mean feat from Oswald. We see a side of this type of conflict that we rarely see. How often do we follow those trying to find the kidnapped in this way? How often are we thrown into the day-to-day life of those who live in such camps? You become fixated with the environment, but most importantly, with Mediha herself.

She is a remarkable young woman, and the documentary’s success indeed hinges on her eternal optimism for life despite all the devastation she has encountered. This is her story, her life, and be damned if anyone will take it from her. Mediha is necessary viewing, and when someone like her, who has gone through what she has already done at such a young age, is brimming with hope, it becomes vital that her story shows the rest of the world that even in humanity’s darkest moments hope and resilience will break through.

★★★★

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