KINGS OF KAWERGOSK
Syrian Kurdish football prodigies chase their boyhood dreams and navigate the trials of irregular immigration in a decade-long epic from childhood mired in a refugee camp in Iraq to adolescence climbing up the German football hierarchy.
TRAILER
SETTING
Syrian Kurds fleeing violent civil war between rebels and the Syrian government have escaped to KRI (Kurdistan Region Iraq) seeking asylum. Years of continued civil war, ISIS, Turkish airstrikes, and uncertainty around the new governing power have kept them from returning to their homeland.
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Among the refugee camps in KRI is Kawergosk Refugee Camp. After eight years, it has transformed from a mass of tents into a micro-town of dirt and cinder block. What was to be a temporary stay is becoming a permanent lot. Though amongst the hardships and heartaches that Kawergosk's residents face, there is defiant hope and the chasing of boyhood dreams.
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As the lifespans of refugee camps worldwide stretch into decades of existence, Kawergosk is a foretoken for the many camps that are becoming settlements, where people may have to spend their lives. Those who are able to find an exit after many years must then start their lives over, often in foreign host countries where their presence is increasingly a controversial societal issue.
The challenges that Islam, Nizar, and their families face in camp and then in Europe embody a climatic chapter in the refugee crisis macro-story.
STORY
Kings of Kawergosk tells the stories of two football prodigies, Nizar and Islam, as they and their families try to find a way forward after an unending series of conflicts in Syria mire them in Kawergosk Refugee Camp for nearly a decade.
Although the boys have European football aspirations, rather than just being a road-to-the-pros narrative, Kings of Kawergosk is a deeply sublime exploration of childhood — with all its transcendent magic, pitfalls, and triumphs — in the context of a football obsessed Kurdish refugee community and its families.​
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Nizar, 14 years old, dreams of playing for a big club in Europe. However, his understanding of the world outside the camp’s fences and how professional football works is closed-off and marked by naivete and despondency. Believing that life in Kurdistan is hopeless and smugglers are the only way out, Nizar makes a series of decisions that puts both his prospects as a footballer and his life on a downward trajectory. With a coach’s friendship, Nizar seeks the resilience to get back up after his disappointments.
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Islam, 10 years old, comes from a family of professional footballers and the young prodigy is already camp-famous. Islam’s family hopes to immigrate to the US and has waited for years on the Kafkaesque UNHCR process which seems to be going nowhere. Through his boyhood imagination and the camp’s own mythology of football, Islam transcends his circumstances and becomes his Real Madrid heroes by excelling on the pitch in ever bigger competitions leading to the annual city-wide youth tournament.​​ Then after taking the perilous route to Europe with smugglers, Islam fights his way up the German football hierarchy while building a new life as a teenager during tumultuous times in Germany.
DIRECTOR's STATEMENT
The families featured in Kings of Kawergosk came to Kawergosk Refugee Camp thinking it would be a few months stay, but they’ve now been stuck for nearly a decade. That’s an entire childhood; some of the kids can neither remember nor imagine what life might be like outside of the camp.
As a social impact theme, Kings of Kawergosk explores how spending childhood in a refugee camp shapes a child/adolescence’s beliefs and psychology.
This question is weighty and pressing, minors are the majority of the population in refugee/IDP camps worldwide and increasingly camps are turning into stays of long indefinite duration. How this affects youths’ psyches and how to care for developmental psychology in refugee camps warrants urgent examination. Kings of Kawergosk delves into this theme through examining the role of football in the lives and minds of its young stars.
I was researching Kings of Kawergosk when COVID hit, shutting down all the airports in Iraq. What was supposed to be a one month trip turned into nearly two years marooned in KRI. During this time, I was embedded in the camp community teaching photography and working with NGOs. Associate producer and Kawergosk resident, Sabir Rasheed, would joke, “Welcome brother, now you’re stuck here too.” Being stuck in Iraq, however, provided unique insight and empathy for the greater ordeals and mental trials that the families in Kings of Kawergosk continue to experience, and resulted in a film that is brimming with heart. I hope that in the end, everyone is able to get to where they want to be, including the big stadiums of European football.
Team Bios
Producer/Director - TW is a director/DP who works primarily in documentary and branded content for companies which have included The North Face, LEGO Group, NHL, Anomaly, and Mailman Group. TW has taught multiple photography courses in Kawergosk Refugee Camp and done video work for NGOs in the region. TW is currently a registered resident of Kurdistan Region Iraq.
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Associate Producer - Sabir Rasheed is Syrian Kurdish and fled Damascus, Syria with his family because of the civil war. On arriving in Kawergosk Refugee Camp seven years ago, he taught himself English to fluency. He has worked as a photo-journalist and researcher for numerous humanitarian organizations. Sabir prefers the video game FIFA to football in real life.