This film is an effort to demonstrate and appreciate the endangered craft of
felt-making through the traditional practices and living memories of the few remaining felt-makers in Sinjar and Kifri in the Kurdistan Region. The documentary is part of a research project with The Endangered Material Knowledge Programme entitled ‘The Lost Practices of Kurdish Felt and Felt-Making on the Foothills of the Zagros Mountains’. Felt-making has a history of thousands of years among the communities living in the region, maintained by the few remaining felt-makers. These craftspeople carry within them not only the material knowledge but also the historical and cultural significance of the craft.
Renas Hassan Babakir
A researcher and writer focusing on the preservation of cultural heritage in Kurdistan and Iraq. With a decade of experience spanning institutions in Iraq and the UK, her focus lies in documenting, archiving, conserving endangered knowledge, artefacts and archives of the people of Kurdistan and the diaspora communities. Babakir holds an MA in Cultural History, Memory, and Identity from the University of Brighton as a Chevening Scholar, which has fuelled her passion for preserving and reviving endangered cultural heritage.
Yad Deen
A British-Kurdish award-winning filmmaker and photographer based in London. He was born in Kurdistan, Iraq, and grew up in London, having fled Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime with his parents as an infant. Deen spent the best part of seven years working as a documentary filmmaker and photographer across Iraq between 2013 and 2020 for clients including British Council, UNOPS, and Minority Rights Group. Throughout these years, he captured the stories of those affected by conflict and adversity, namely the Yazidi community and survivors