Rebiya Kadeer is a human rights activist twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the impassioned though graying exiled leader of the Uyghurs, a Muslim people whose ancestral home, East Turkestan, was annexed by the Chinese in 1949 and renamed Xinxiang province. Since that time, the Chinese have dominated politically, culturally, and economically, much like in Tibet.

Since her youth, Kadeer has been fiercely nationalistic. Married off at an early age and bearing six children in close succession, she was divorced by her husband for her activism. Penniless, she used her intelligence and drive to become one of the wealthiest people in China, after Deng ushered in an era of capitalism. Remaining politically active, she paid the price. Several of her sons languish in Chinese prisons while she and her second husband, in exile, keep alive the protest movement from abroad.

Using archival footage, the film traces the violent conflict between Chinese and Uyghurs and goes on to tell the story of Kadeer’s continued efforts in Washington, DC, to lobby Congress for human rights in China.

Middle East Studies Association, 2011
Melbourne International Film Festival, 2009