By Amanda Gilmore
This timely Documentary follows a group of Western women who left their respective countries to join ISIS. Now they want to return home but their countries don’t want them back. Therefore, resulting in them and their children being held in detention camps in northern Syria.
Director Alba Sotorra Clua has created an empathetic and sensitive documentary by giving these women a chance to tell their story. Two women in the camp many may have heard about before, are Shamima Begum, who left the UK with her two friends as a teenager, and Hoda Muthana, who allegedly incited her followers on Twitter to support the Islamic State.
We follow a group of women at a detention camp as they take care of their children. We hear their stories primarily through a writing workshop that is run by local Kurdish woman Sevinaz. Her program encourages the women to journal about why they came to Syria to join ISIS, what happened when they came, and how they feel looking back.
With The Return’s direction by Sotorra Clua, the audience is challenged to re-evaluate preconceived judgements of these women.
The Return: Life After ISIS screens at SXSW: Wednesday, March 17 at 3 PM ET
For advertising opportunites please contact mrwill@mrwillwong.com