Before the screening of On Her Shoulders I was expecting a generic, typically sundancian, lovely-filmed (beautiful films about ugly problems – and problems which will not be cleared in this way and the picture will not be pleasant) story about another individual success (in this case Nobel Peace Prize for Nadia Murad). You know, a typical micro-narrative of self-transformation, taking over ideology, triumph of character, commitment and perseverance, which results in just another picture encouraging the building of Western, neoliberal dreams (and does anyone other than 1% dream those dreams?). I wasn’t much wrong, though I have to admit I got glimpses of something more.
The director, Alexandria Bombach, is able to show her good side, having her eyes open to Nadia’s responsibility burst by the officials of peace institutions, as well as to the complete senselessness of her efforts towards the cynicism of a polite but profit-based world. We are confronted with further assurances by increasingly senior officials of the desire to solve the problem of Yazidi genocide (Nadia is a witness and Ambassador of the United Nations) by ISIS and zero actual actions.
Moreover, Bombach can show what lies between the lines of Nadia’s growing detachment from the reality from which she fled and the loneliness of a small religious group in an unequal battle with a powerful military organization. The heroine is increasingly starting to speak the language of the West, losing the power of her own message somewhere along the way.
The resolution of these problems is so quick and obvious to the artist that she makes us think about its legitimacy. It adopts the well-known liberal method – we promise that we will help, but at your place, and not at our place in the West (organize yourself at home, you will manage, and it will be better without your moans and pushing to the party without invitation). Bombach disappoints with references to outdated national-identical patriotism and calls for unequal battles, thus returning to the generic track of mainstream American documentaries about nightmares of war.
It is a pity that in On Her Shoulders we have more courtroom drama than artistic documentary on the victims of terrorism (and wars with terrorism), because the story visible in just a few shots using a delicate, poetic picture and a subtle game of associations works really well for the director.
