Winner, Best Documentary Feature Film, 2014
In 1988, the Iraqi Ba’ath party murdered and buried 182,000 Kurds in 350 mass graves in a genocide known as Operation Anfar. Only 10 people managed to escape. One of these survivors, Faraj, climbed out from amongst the dead and was taken to the USA by Human Rights Watch. To raise awareness of the genocidal massacres, he formed the Iraqi Mass Graves Survivors’ group. Director Taha Karimi’s deeply moving film follows Faraj’s return to Kurdistan, where, with four other survivors, he distributes 1001 red apples and cloves as symbols of reconciliation and peace for families who had lost dear ones in the massacre.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
