The Deminer(HKAFF 2018)

Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

Kurdish mine-clearing hero Fakhir Berwari is the subject of this riveting documentary honoring his bravery during the early 2000s in war-torn Iraq. Armed with rudimentary tools, the army colonel endeavored to defuse thousands of landmines after seeing how many innocent people they killed or maimed. Even after losing a leg and retiring in 2008, Fakhir returned to the field in 2014, taking up clippers and flak jacket once more to answer the call of duty. Assembled from hours of footage culled from Fakhir’s two demining stints, the film offers an intense, sometimes grisly view of the dangers Fakhir faced as he used his intelligence and intuition to make split-second, life-or-death decisions. Not for the faint of heart.