House Without Roof
Fall Grant 2013
Soleen Yusef / Feature Narrative / Iraq, Germany, Qatar / 2016 / 90 min / Colour / Original Language: German, Kurdish / Interests: Politics, Road Trip, Dramedy, Immigration, Identity
Synopsis
‘House Without Roof’ tells the journey of Alan, Jan and Liya, three siblings born in the Kurdish part of Iraq who grew up in Germany. The three must fulfill the last wishes of their late mother and bury her in their Kurdish home village next to their father, who fell in the battle against the regime of Saddam Hussein. On their nervewracking Kurdistan odyssey, they are not just confronted by their large Kurdish family, who do not want their mother to be buried next to her husband, but also by each other, since they have been emotionally separated over time. In their personal journeys, searching for homeland, identity and the road to that knowledge, they laugh, fight, lose their mother’s coffin, hurt each other and cry – but at last they achieve their aim and come closer together as a family.
Credits
- Director
- Soleen Yusef
- Screenwriter
- Soleen Yusef
- Producer
- Mehmet Aktas
About the Director
Soleen Yusef was born in Duhok / Iraq in 1987. At the age of nine she and her family fled to Germany because of political reasons. After graduating high school she attended the Academy of Stage Arts and was trained as singer and actress. Moreover she worked as a production assistant and 1st AD for the production company Mîtosfilm. Since 2008 she has been studying feature film directing at the Baden-Wurttemberg Film Academy and realized several short films, which have been screened at many renowned international film festivals. In the meantime Soleen lives and works between Kurdistan and Germany.
Awards and Festival History
Festivals
CINEDAYS Festival of European Film 2016
Kolkata IFF 2016, International Competition for the Woman Director Award
German Cinema New Talent Award for Best Producer, Filmfest Munich 2016 (WP)
Special Grand Prix of the Jury, Montreal World FF 2016 (WP)
Audience Award, Duhok IFF 2017
Peace Film Award, Osnabrück IFF 2017