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Benedetta Argentieri, an independent journalist and documentary director, dedicated the award she won at the 32nd Film Festival Cologne last week to the people of North and East Syria.
I dedicate this award to the brave people of North East Syria who face daily attacks by the Turkish State which kills civilians, especially women, with drones. pic.twitter.com/QbBNEvUERG
— Benedetta Argentieri (@benargentieri) October 28, 2022
The Matchmaker, Argentieri’s 90-minute film about a notorious recruiter for the extremist jihadist Islamic State (ISIS), was screened at the Film Festival Cologne on 26 October and received the Phoenix Award for the festival’s best documentary film.
The Matchmaker relates the story of a British woman who is said to have recruited many Western women via social media to marry ISIS fighters.
Benedetta Argentieri, the director of The Matchmaker, dedicated her award to the people of North and East Syria, and to the women in particular.
The northern stretch of Syria bordering Turkey and Iraq, including large areas with a Kurdish majority, were captured by ISIS as the jihadists swept across the region to declare a global caliphate in 2014.
Kurdish-led forces struck back at the jihadists in the following years, and by 2017 ISIS had lost 95 percent of its territory. Democratic autonomous administrations sprang up across North and East Syria in place of the short-lived Islamist regime.
During her speech, Argentieri said the people of North and East Syria were building a new society based on democracy, ecology and women’s freedom in spite of new dangers posed by repeated instances of Turkish aggression.
“They fought against ISIS. They stood against the ISIS caliphate,” Argentieri said. “It has not been easy for the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria, especially in an environment where the Turkish state is killing people, especially women, with drones. We must never forget.”
Argentieri is set to moderate a panel titled “Our Vision: Building Free Life” at the 4th Session of the feminist organisation Women Weaving the Future’s second international conference, “Our Revolution: Liberating Life”, on 5–6 November in Berlin.
In the 4th Session of the 2nd International Conference we will talk about our visions, how we organize and how we defend them. Moderator: @benargentieri pic.twitter.com/NNNHAwLI0o
— Womenweavingfuture (@Womenweaving2) October 30, 2022
Since 2014, Benedetta Argentieri has been focusing on Iraq and Syria, covering the ongoing conflict and the feminist struggles with feature articles and feature-length documentaries. Her work has been published by several international media organisations, including Reuters, the Sunday Times, the Daily Beast, and the Sunday Telegraph.
