[usr 3.5]
Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi, survived genocide and sexual slavery committed by ISIS. Repeating her story to the world, this ordinary girl finds herself thrust onto the international stage as the voice of her people.
Once in a while, a remarkable young woman comes along who carries the burden of an entire people. There was Malala Yousafzai. Nadia Murad is another powerful example of a young woman who escaped unspeakable terrors and did not give up until her voice was heard. Alexandria Bombach’s documentary spends the majority of its time focusing on Nadia’s journey to become a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador. Not a small feat by any measure – more recently, Nadia was awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. And she’s only 25. What have YOU done lately?
Before the ISIS invasion, Nadia had been a student leading an idyllic life in Sinjar, “one of the Yazidi villages.” A refugee, a victim of war and sexual slavery, with countless Yazidi family members murdered by the ISIS, Nadia managed to escape but couldn’t live with the knowledge that the nightmares persisted. Along with the help and guidance of her loyal companion Murad, she testified before the U.N. security council against Islamic rule and got an ovation. She campaigned, speaking for “millions without a voice.” She visited over 17 countries. She told her story, again and again, in gruesome detail. “It’s not a job,” Nadia says humbly. “It’s a request for help.”
Nadia herself is by turns passionate, strong-willed, confident, mature, frightened and reserved… Each of her smiles – even when she is at her most jubilant, cooking in the kitchen – ends in a melancholic wisp of an expression. Individual moments, such as Nadia breaking into tears listening to a child play guitar while recounting the genocide’s atrocities, are heartbreaking. The final scenes, which follow Nadia into the U.N. Headquarters, are genuinely fascinating. Her grand finale speech, with Amal Clooney by her side, is worth the journey by itself.
And the journey can be somewhat arduous. The documentary sure does its subject justice, but also happens to be a bit dry and overlong. Not much is revealed about Nadia’s private life, nor about ISIS and its terrible nature/structure/effect/future/etc. The doc is solely focused on Nadia’s travails – I certainly got the intensity of the cause, but I didn’t get a full picture of its intricacies, or Nadia’s life, her past. With the weight of the world on her shoulders, Nadia Murad is a powerful hero in a somewhat meandering doc.
Now playing in select theaters
