Haraka Baraka: Movement is a Blessing

After having lived in the Netherlands for over 20 years, the director’s parents, Gulzar and Shwan, decide to return back to Kurdistan, their homeland. Escaping the Iraqi regime as refugees in the early 90s, they became part of the larger Kurdish Diaspora who resettled in the Europe. In the recent decade, Iraqi Kurdistan has developed into a regional safe-haven. However, with current tensions around the threat of the Islamic State (IS), the social and political landscape in the Middle East is changing drastically. In “Haraka Baraka”, the director follows her parents’ return to their homeland whilst addressing the renegotiation of belonging, temporality and future during a (seemingly) timeless crisis.

Lana Askari

Lana Askari holds a BA in Liberal Arts & Sciences from University College Utrecht, and an MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include museum- and visual anthropology, trauma and memory, post-conflict regions, Kurdish diaspora and the anthropology of death. Trained as a documentary filmmaker through the MA programme at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, she recently commenced her PhD at the University of Manchester on Kurdish returnees in Iraqi Kurdistan.