9 Days at Raqqa

Leila Mustapha is Kurdish and Syrian. Her battle was Raqqa, the former capital of the Islamic State with 300,000 inhabitants, reduced to a field of ruin after the war. An engineer by training, mayor at just 30, immersed in a world of men, her mission is to rebuild her city, to reconcile, and to establish democracy there. An extraordinary mission. A French writer crosses Iraq and Syria to meet her. In this still dangerous city, she has 9 days to live with Leila and tell her story in a book.

• cannes 2020