With a gallant Women’s March preceding its world premiere at Cannes, Girls of the Sun evokes Oliver Stone’s seminal Platoon in its no-guts-no-glory portrayal of combat—but taken from a one-of-a-kind female perspective. It focuses on the real-life exploits of the Yazidi women who were kidnapped and suffered unspeakable trauma before escaping to join the Kurdish army and take on the Islamic State.

Lawyer-turned-freedom fighter Baha (Golshifteh Farahani) prepares to liberate her Kurdistan village and free her son (Tornike Alievi) taken hostage by extremists. French journalist Mathilde (Emmanuelle Bercot, Mon Roi and guest of AF FFF2017), herself traumatised by the recent death of her husband in Libya, arrives to cover the story of Baha and her Kurdish army known as ‘Girls of the Sun’. During her time spent embedded within the ranks of this all-female unit of former ISIS captives, Mathilde faces her own inner demons and finds strength through adversity.

A marked departure from Eva Husson’s debut, Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story, AF FFF2016), Girls of the Sun is an incendiary and unashamedly emotional film that pays respect to largely unacknowledged Kurdish female warriors who have played a monumental role in the fight against Daesh.