Nowhere to Hide follows male nurse Nori Sharif through five years of dramatic change, providing unique access into one of the world’s most dangerous and inaccessible areas – the “triangle of death” in central Iraq.
Initially filming stories of survivors and the hope of a better future as American and Coalition troops retreat from Iraq in 2011, conflicts continue with Iraqi militias, and the population flees accompanied by most of the hospital staff. Nori is one of the few who remain. When ISIS advances on Jalawla in 2014 and takes over the city, he too must flee with his family at a moment’s notice, and turns the camera on himself.
This first-person. immersive narrative of five turbulent years in the life of an Iraqi medic provides insights about a timely and relevant subject that we know very little about.
Filmmaker Zaradasht Ahmed, who started a new life 20 years ago as an Iraqi (Kurdish) refugee, directs this searing film on Iraqi nurse, Nori Sharif, who is caught in the most challenging of circumstances, in the middle of sectarian violence, with his own family.
Nowhere to Hide is humanistic and compassionate documentary, told from the inside with unflinching honesty about a nightmarish experience from the aftermath of Iraq War to a more liberal but just as unsettled world
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – ZARADASHT AHMED
“My ambition is to let the audience reflect on the human consequences of a brutal reality where all taboos are violated. With Nowhere to Hide I want to show that we are all part of this reality – war, explosions, victims, terrorism, they affect us globally, and we are all responsible, despite our geographical whereabouts. Meanwhile, I want to show the human resistance that is growing among these survivors; to show the hope of rebuilding after the breakdown of civilization. In the end, as humans, the only thing that can help us survive is to believe that the will to build will always be stronger than the desire to destroy.”
ABOUT DIRECTOR ZARADASHT AHMED
Director and Photographer Zaradasht Ahmed is a Kurdish/Norwegian filmmaker. He was born and raised in Northern Iraq. His latest work “Nowhere to Hide” has won multiple awards including the IDFA Award for Best Feature Documentary and the One World Human Rights Film Festival Award for Best Documentary. Earlier works include the award-winning documentary Road to Diyarbakir, and Fata Morgana. Zaradasht has many years of experience working with documentary filmmaking in the Middle East, North-Africa, and Asia, as well as training local people in documentation.
WINNER –
Best Feature Documentary at IDFA
Best Documentary at One World Human Rights Film Festival
Audience Award at Thessaloniki International FF
Best Feature Documentary at DokFilm
CREDITS
Runtime 86 min
Format DCP and HD Formats
Screen ratio 16:9
Sound format 5.1 surround and stereo
Languages Arabic with English, Norwegian, Swedish, Portugese Subtitles.
Director-Writer Zaradasht Ahmed
Producer Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas
Co-Producers Hans Husum, Stina Gardell
Editor Eva Hillström
