Laleh, a journalist from Paris, finds herself caught between the fronts in Iraq when IS suddenly invades the country. During her escape she encounters other refugees, Iraqi families and children, as well as former U.S. soldiers and Kurdish freedom fighters.

As in her previous films SUN and MOON, Kurdwin Ayub’s STARS deals with the constantly changing power relations between West and East. It is about identities and stereotypes, about migration and flight. And about who is ultimately allowed to leave and who has to stay.

STARS is a film about war and how war is experienced in people’s everyday lives. It is inspired by true events.