Director Hogir Hirori's "Sabaya" was awarded last year at the Sundance Festival and also received a Golden Bug for best documentary.

The film depicts how two men, Mahmud, who is now dead, and Ziyad, rescue Yazidi women from the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria.

But in September 2021, it was met with criticism in the New York Times after it emerged that a majority of the women did not agree to participate in the film.

Now the film is in windy weather again.

Moms claim to be cheated

In a scene in "Sabaya", a mother is separated from her son.

It is said that the Yazidi families are unlikely to accept children of IS soldiers.

It is not said that they will be reunited or that they will disappear for good, but that they will be relocated temporarily.

But according to Kvartal's review, several things happened that do not appear in the documentary.

According to the review, several of the women have given up their children against false promises to be reunited with them.

- They took us to the camp administration and said that they wanted to take us out of the camp and that they wanted to take care of our children.

They tricked us, they took us to their homes and then they took our children away from us, says one of the women who participated in "Sabaya" to Kvartal.

Former US Ambassador Peter Galbraith was in Syria when the documentary was filmed and was involved in reuniting some 20 Yazidi women with their children.

- The most important point, and I tried to convince The New York Times about this, was that the film distorted what [the main characters] did.

They did not go into the camp to save these girls in many cases, they went in and took away their children, says Peter Galbraith to Kvartal.

"Absurd that we should end up here again"

Director Hogir Hirori has declined to participate in the review.

In a text message to Kulturnyheterna, he says that the criticism is absurd.

But he does not want to go on the defensive, but says that he will respond to the criticism "in the near future".

"I think it is absurd that we should end up here, where the film Sabaya is accused again, when we have already answered similar questions before.

And especially now when the online newspaper (Kvartal) comes with serious accusations against a person who has died and who can not defend himself.

There has long been an agenda behind all these accusations ", Hirori writes in an SMS.

Axel Arnö is program manager at SVT and responsible publisher for "Sabaya".

He does not want to speculate on what this might mean for the documentary.

- I know that the film has been the subject of criticism, and I have to look at this new information before I can judge it.

If it is to cause any action on our part, he tells Kvartal.

Kulturnyheterna has contacted Axel Arnö and the newspaper Kvartal for a comment.