Up To G-Cup also screens digitally nationwide between May 20 – 26 on HRWFF’s digital streaming platform. Watch here.

Q&A with Director Jacqueline van Vugt, Editor Sandro Ligtenberg, and Sarah Zilan Koessler, Psychotherapist and Women’s Activist

Northern Iraq’s first lingerie store not only sells underwear, but also acts as a meeting place where women connect to their bodies and sensuality after overcoming the traumas of oppression, war, and conservative morality. The store is in Suleimaniyah, a city in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq, where the male management of the mall state: “A billboard of a woman in lingerie is not possible – a woman in a bra and thong but without a head, maybe.” Yet the women in Up to G-Cup are open with each other and the camera. Director Jacqueline van Vugt captures intimate stories about love, sex, shame, and war.

“Women, girls – all their decisions have to be approved by the family. You can’t choose your own husband. Our culture doesn’t allow us to follow our hearts, your heart has to stay hidden.”  —Shyaw, Film Participant, Up to G-Cup

“It is my dream that one day in Kurdistan too, lingerie will be seen like other clothes and no longer be a taboo subject.”  —Shapol, Film Participant, Up to G-Cup

Accessibility
All cinemas are wheelchair accessible. Fully subtitled in English. Closed Captions and Audio Description available in English in-person and online. Assistive listening devices available for all screenings. Please visit individual venue websites or contact individual box offices for details and note that equipment is subject to availability. Post-screening discussions will offer CART (live transcription).