The Phantom Pain of Rojava is a documentary that follows a group of Kurdish guerillas in northern Syria who are willing to devote their lives to protecting the newbornWomen’s Revolution in Rojava. The film takes us on a journey into the lives of these fighters who have been injured, mostly by drone attacks, or have had body parts amputated. They live together in a secret house for the wounded, and their daily lives are both extraordinary and surreal. Despite the challenges they face, including moments of humor, they demonstrate incredible human willpower.

Since 2019, the balance of warfare for the Kurdish guerrillas has radically changed due to new drone technology being used by Turkey. The battlefield has shifted from the ground to the air, and the guerrillas’ bodies are controlled and terrorized by this new unmanned machine that tracks and targets them from thousands of kilometers away.

Rojava, the homeland of the Kurdish people and a utopia for them, is the birthplace of the Women’s Revolution and serves as a metaphor for the guerrillas’ bodies. While the fighters of Rojava lose body parts every day in drone attacks, the homeland of Rojava is also invaded step by step. Phantom Pain is pain that stems from a body part that no longer exists, usually from a part of the body that has been amputated but is still remembered by the brain. This is why the rest of the body continues to feel the pain forever. For the people of Rojava, the memory of their lost homeland serves as a metaphor for a lost body part, and reality becomes injured and painful.

Perhaps the new drone weapons will bring an end to Rojava’s resistance, or maybe they’ll be the last generation of guerrillas that fight using their bodies and instincts.

The Phantom Pain of Rojava was supported through Maryam Ebrahimi’s 2021 Chicken & Egg Award.