Zagros

Zagros is a twenty six year old shepherd living in a Kurdish village with his pregnant wife Havin and their daughter. His father tells him that gossip about Havin is going round the village, that she is said to be seeing another man. Zagros trusts his wife and does not take the talk seriously. While he is out with the sheep he learns that his family have accused Havin of adultery and shut her in the house. When he returns to the village his wife and daughter are gone; Havin has fled west with their daughter and her unborn child. Zagros stands against his father and sets out after her, meeting a smuggler in Istanbul who can take him west. The film does not make the accusation of dishonour look justified; it shows how such an accusation closes in on a person. Whether the claim is true is not at the centre of the matter; the authority granted to the claim is. Sahim Omar Kalifa’s hundred and two minute film, a joint production of Belgium, Iraq and the Netherlands, was completed in 2017.