Sex slavery survivor compelling in doc
“On Her Shoulders” follows sex slavery survivor Nadia Murad as she advocates for her fellow Yazidi people to journalists and high-ranking government representatives. Murad has become the international face of the Yazidis, a religious minority group in Iraq that the U.S. State Department and others have said was targeted for genocide by the Islamic State.
Murad won the Nobel Peace Prize in October for her efforts on behalf of the Yazidi people. Many of those who survived Islamic State attacks moved to refugee camps in Europe. But 3,000 women and girls still are held as sex slaves by the Islamic State, Murad has said.
One is likely to learn more about the context of Murad’s campaign from looking her up after watching “On Her Shoulders” than from the film itself. Director Alexandria Bombach shot it long before the Nobel win, but even without considering that timing, Bombach goes light on historical context and other key details. The film is more like a survey of Murad’s activism during a limited period.
But its subject compels throughout. Murad, who lived happily on her family’s farm and never dreamed of activism before being abducted, always is affecting, because her determination never quite obscures her visible, profound and understandable sadness.
She is poised but not polished as she sits for media interviews during which interviewers gently coax out her personal story while making a big deal about how sensitive the topic is, and by extension, how sensitive they are. During these moments, Murad sometimes lets anger and frustration bubble up along with grief.
She is willing to be frank with journalists, she says, but they never ask the right questions, about what must be done to help the still-suffering Yazidi people.
When she visits Yazidi refugees in camps in Europe, Murad openly breaks down. These stark, real moments stand in contrast to those in which Amal Clooney, the glamorous human rights lawyer who is married to George Clooney, swoops in to accompany Murad to appearances before the United Nations and the media.
Bombach’s inclusion of a scene in which Amal Clooney agrees to stage a walk down a sidewalk with Murad for TV cameras seems to be commentary, contrasting Murad’s raw authenticity with Clooney’s smoothness. But that’s hard to say, given the lack of commentary, or context, elsewhere in the film.