“Under Every Yard of Sky” tells the story of the struggle of modern
day Iraqi Kurdistan. Iraq’s Kurds have fought for years for their
independence. In the 1980s and 90s, Saddam Hussein waged war
against the Kurds, killing hundreds of thousands.
In 2003 after the US-led invasion, Kurdistan’s fortunes began to
rise. With Saddam’s regime dismantled, the previous decades of
violence and poverty began to fade into memory. Kurdistan
became astonishingly peaceful as oil money began to flow.
Housing developments began to overtake the countryside and
foreign workers from Bangladesh and Ethiopia were flown in to do
the jobs that Kurds no longer wanted.
Then in 2014 it all came to terrifying halt as ISIS swept into Iraq
and the region descended again into violence.
“Under Every Yard of Sky” explores the intimate and paradoxical
aspects of Iraq’s Kurdish people who are forever caught in the
unresolved turmoil that haunts their region.
