The Duhok International Film Festival (September 9-16) will host the world premiere of director Hakar Abdulqader's long documentary film Separation, where it will compete for the Best Kurdish Documentary Film award. This coincides with the release of the film's first trailer by MAD Solutions, the company responsible for handling the film's distribution, after it won the MAD Award at the Final Cut in Venice at the Venice International Film Festival 2015.

After fleeing their town, Shingal in Iraq, which is under siege from Isis, thousands of Yazidi Kurds find themselves without food or water at the top of Shingal Mountain. Faced with no other choice, three men leave to seek sustenance for their families, unaware that an almost safe passage to Kurdistan has been recently opened. The documentary reveals the story of their wives and children who, having reached the refugee camp, remain anxiously awaiting news of their husbands, while at the same time learning to adapt to life in a new setting.

Written, directed and edited by Hakar Abdulqader, Separation is produced by Duhok Cinema Directorate (Producer Shamal Sabri), supported by the Council of Women's Affairs - Kurdistan Regional Government, and stars Filos Qolo Murad, Suzan Naif Elias, Nadifa Hasso, Barakat Khodeda, Rasho Qasim Khalaf and Hanifa Ali.

Hakar Abdulqader is an Iraqi director, writer and editor. He was born on 1980 in Duhok city, Kurdistan region of Iraq. His involvement and passion in documentary films started in 2000. He has worked as an editor for 10 years in many short films, documentary films and TV series. But his personal life experiences kept him close to documentary films and realistic cinema.

Therefore, he developed his filmmaking knowledge by participating in several international documentary filmmaking workshops. In 2011, he directed his first award winning documentary Gypsies of March. He has also contributed to several award-winning fiction films such as Herman and The Dark Wind by director Hussein Hassan, which are films that portray the life and suffering of people in war zones and their struggle for a peaceful life, which also portrays the life of Hakar himself.