Zara

As a child, Mirka has had to flee from her hometown, leaving her entire family behind. After spending 12 years in exile in Switzerland, the period which allows her to carry a Swiss passport, the young Kurd woman decides to try and return to her home village Zara. Her travelling partner is her friend Nursa. What starts out as a trip of two lively, energetic young women to a somewhat exotic destination soon becomes a tough, difficult journey. When they enter the former war-zone, they find the roads disintegrated. The railroad has not been in use for years. The women continue on foot, walking through the wide, barren landscape and the open, grey skies. Even in this hostile environment however, they find places that offer warmth and cover. A friendly reception in an old bar, along the road. The ruins of a home in which they find shelter for a storm. The journey to Zara thus becomes a search for a place where the women feel they belong. The exhausting journey, the unwelcome encounters in the country, the flood of childhood memories and the confrontation with the pending death of her ill friend make Mirka loose her touch with reality. She falls into a dream-world, where the unanswered questions of the past roam free. (© AMOUR FOU)