Director Husson was inspired to make the film after reading about the exploits of real-life Kurdish women who were taken hostage by Islamic State fighters as they swept across Syria and Iraq, but managed to escape and then took up arms against their former captors.
Incidentally, Farahani’s own life has been no less adventurous. At school back home, she protested against lack of heating, and took love letters from one to another playing Cupid. At 16, she tonsured her head, because she did not want to wear a scarf and cycled the streets of her city – unthinkable in a nation run by conservative clergy.
