‘Mediha’ Director Hasan Oswald’s Camera Became Mediha Alhamad’s “Best Friend,” She Says – Contenders Documentary

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Director Hasan Oswald got to know a Yazidi translator on his previous project and wanted to make a film about the victims of the 2014 Yazidi genocide.

In 2018, he met Mediha Ibrahim Alhamad, then 14, having just returned from captivity by ISIS since she was 10. Oswald gave Alhamad the camera to film her life and her family’s search for other kidnapped family members. “Camera was my best friend, I always say” Alhamad said at Deadline’s Contenders Documentary event. “She was my best friend.

I called the camera she because I don’t have a sister, that’s why. It was making me feel so good and so strong.” Oswald said he considered that interviewing Alhamad about her kidnapping might retraumatize her.

Letting Alhamad guide the film gave her control over what she shared and also highlighted moments of beauty amid the turmoil in Iraq. RELATED: 2024-25 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More “We allowed them to just be kids,” Oswald said. “There was beauty in that but also the resilience that Mediha showed, and the community and her siblings show.