The Cinematic Frontline — War and the Politics of Storytelling in “Girls of the Sun”

Instructor: Eva Husson Date & Time: November 14, 21, 28, December 5 09:00-11:30 ET

DESCRIPTION: In Girls of the Sun, a film written and directed by Eva Husson, rooted in the real-life resistance of Kurdish women fighters against ISIS, narrative becomes a weapon, and the filmmaking process itself a war of logistics, ethics, and representation. This Seminar investigates what it means to build a politically charged film within the transnational machinery of cinema, where personal vision must pass through the gauntlets of finance, geopolitics, reception, and representation.
Structured as a four-part exploration, this Seminar traces the full arc of making Girls of the Sun: from initial research and writing, to the labyrinth of financing and international co-production, to the ethical negotiation of trauma and representation, and finally, to the public reception of the work—including the paradoxical backlash it received amid the MeToo movement. Through theoretical texts, annotated script and scene analyses, production documents, and conversations with key collaborators, we will investigate the tension between artistic freedom and political responsibility when making a film in a war zone of both bodies and narratives.
This is a Seminar for those interested in the creative process as a form of praxis, where storytelling becomes an act of resistance, and where directing is less about control than about the ethical navigation of forces far greater than oneself.

Session Breakdown
Session 1, Vision & Violence – Writing Against Erasure: We begin with the origins of Girls of the Sun and the choice to center Kurdish women fighters, the aesthetic and political stakes of telling a real-time war story, and the screenwriting process as a form of testimony. We interrogate how cinema confronts—or avoids—the political, and what it means to fictionalize the real.
Readings/Media: Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (chapter on violence),  Didier Eribon, Returning to Reims; excerpts from Girls of the Sun annotated script; Visual references: The Battle of Algiers, Beau Travail. Documentary work: Surrounded by ISIS, director Xavier Muntz.

Special Guest: War reporter  Xavier Muntz, who worked extensively on Kurdistan.

Session 2, Reception, Misreading, and Feminist Discomfort – We contrast the first session, the intention, by addressing the film’s reception, especially the dissonance between its feminist intent and its critical backlash at Cannes. This session interrogates the paradoxes of feminist storytelling, Western savior narratives, and how cultural capital is unevenly distributed when women speak of war. What happens when a story meant to provoke solidarity gets dismissed as melodrama? Who gets to tell certain stories, and why?

Readings/Media: Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion; Cannes reviews and press reactions to Girls of the Sun;

Visual references: The Battle of Algiers, One Battle After Another

Session 3, Producing the Impossible: Capital, Borders, and Trust – This session maps the geopolitical and financial labyrinth of getting the film made: international co-productions, soft money, political gatekeeping, and the precarity of shooting in sensitive regions. We examine how the story was shaped by what could and couldn’t be funded, and how co-producers, state agencies, and cultural agendas intersected with the director’s intent. Overview of budget and co-production agreements; excerpts from Cannes press materials and co-production pitch decks.

Special Guest: Girls of the Sun producer, Didar Domehri

Session 4, Representation and the Edge of Trauma – How do we depict suffering without aestheticizing it? When does a close-up become exploitation? This session examines how trauma was navigated on set—between actors, the real women whose stories inspired the film, and the responsibility of representation. We also explore the stylistic choices that created emotional and narrative intensity, and the tension between vérité and poetics.

Readings/Media: Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others; Ariella Azoulay, The Civil Contract of Photography;  Representations of Sexual Violence in War Cinema, Kelly Saint-Laurent

Annotated visual script sequences from Girls of the Sun; scene studies from Son of Saul, Waltz with Bashir, Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Documentary work: Gulistan, Land of Roses

Special Guest: Zaynê Akyol, director Gulistan, Land of Roses

IMAGE: Eva Husson, Girls of the Sun (still), 2018

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