1001 Apples

1001 Apples (Hezar-O Yek Siv), 2013

Iraq | Blu-ray, Color, 74’ | Kurdish
Director: Taha Karimi

In 1988, Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath regime attacked the rural areas in Northern Iraq, killing 182,000 Kurds and burying them in 350 mass graves. Only 10 people managed to escape this massacre. Faraj, one of the escapees, climbs out from amongst the dead with the help of the Human Rights Watch and flees to the USA. When Faraj realizes that few people are aware of these massacres, known as the Anfal Campaign, he forms the “Iraqi Mass Graves Survivors” group. Returning to Kurdistan with four other survivors, Faraj visits the families of the deceased with 1001 red apples and numerous cloves. In this film, which playfully interweaves fiction and documentary, young director Taha Karimi, who unexpectedly passed away in a car accident last May, virtually carries out an archaeological excavation of memory to expose the responsibility of remembering and the difficultyof reconciliation.