Into the fire

In August 2014, ISIS swept into Sinjar, a town in northern Iraq and home to many of the country’s Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking ethnic and religious minority long subjected to persecution. Regarding the Yazidis as infidels, ISIS killed thousands and enslaved thousands of women and girls, in what is now widely recognised as genocide. The short documentary Into the Fire follows Hana Khider, a Yazidi woman who heads an all-female de-mining team.

Khider works for the Mines Advisory Group, one of the founding members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize with its coordinator, Jody Williams. The perilous work of Khider’s crew consists of searching for and deactivating hidden explosives left by ISIS, some disguised as everyday objects, including children’s toys. Directed by the British filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel, the film moves between Khider’s job and her life as a wife and mother, showing two sides of caring for one’s community and rebuilding after the trauma of the genocide.

The film is part of von Einsiedel’s five-part series produced in collaboration with the Nobel Prize and National Geographic, with each instalment focusing on the continuing influence of a different peace laureate. Producer: Harri Grace, Dan Lin, Mark Bauch Website: Nobel Prize, Grain Media, Rideback Clearing the Zone Rouge in France, where First World War debris still poses a threat After his son’s terrorist attack, Azdyne seeks healing – and his granddaughter What motivated three young Britons to join the deadly fight against ISIS in Syria? Inspired by toys, an Afghani inventor’s low-cost solution to landmine threat Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later After 17 years of addiction, Raina finds a lifeline in compassion The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them Looted artefacts are reborn as ‘ghosts’ in an artist’s protest against colonisation Searching for superbug cures in the salt flats of the Atacama Desert