ELAHA

Duration:
110 min

Type:
Fiction

Year:
2023

Director:
Milena Aboyan

Producer:
Emina Smajić, Janina Sara Hennemann

Country:
Germany

Languages:
German, Kurdish

Subtitles:
English

Elaha is a young Kurdish-German woman torn between the unconditional love for her family and her own aspirations in life. Although she cares most about having a good time with her girlfriends and taking care of her younger brother, she has to fight patriarchy while being the perfect daughter. Ultimately, she has to make a decision: To tell the truth or live a life in grand delusion. A psychological journey about emancipation that reveals that only by facing reality, we can be true to ourselves.

Milena Aboyan was born a Yazidi Kurd in Armenia in 1992. In 2010 she began a four-year acting training program in Germany. During the program, she played parts in several theatrical productions. After receiving her acting degree, she changed disciplines and began to focus on writing. She started working as an assistant dramatic advisor for an early-evening ARD series. In 2015, she began studying screenwriting at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. In 2019 she won the Emden Screenplay Award. ELAHA is her final film at the Filmakademie. It was already awarded the “Kaiju Cinema Diffusion Prize” at the Locarno Film Festival.