American Herro (2009) Online

I found this movie to be touching. I watched on Capital Hill with Kirk and Herro in the room. It brought back many fond memories and certainly enlightened me to more of the Kurdish story. Thank you Kirk for bringing this to us all.

In it you will find the story of behind the scenes struggle and success. You will find a family dedicated to the pursuit of freedom, a value we all love and enjoy.

It's a wonderful opportunity to see how our diplomatic corps goes out on the edge to fight for world peace. Herro has put her life on the line so many times and she will most likely not be remembered as a military hero, but she does deserve recognition, along with many other Kurds, for what she has accomplished.

Thanks for the reviews guys! Very nice of you. I know 2 of you for sure.

As the director of this documentary it was very important for me to reflect well on the story of the Mustafa family, while also giving enough background and history as I could, on the Kurdish people. The toughest challenge in that, is to tell an objective and uplifting story, without crossing over into something I would've considered more run of the mill, and canned. At the end of the day, I chose to focus on the positive, while as creatively as I could, weave in a spiritual journey with music, poetry and stock footage.

Recently at a film festival in London a great question was posed about Kissinger's involvement in the Iraqi conflict dating back to the 70's, that inevitably affected the Kurds, and I thought it was a good point...the documentary could have gone that route. Still, I thought about that, and it occurred to me, those type of points are what I might have done in a documentary about Kurdish history, and though I often wanted to touch on the "war" of current, and the path leading to it, it's just not what I set out to do. When I originally decided to pursue this story, I wanted to paint a portrait of a true American Hero, and to show the human struggle, back story and plight of those we look up to with such honor. Plus, I wanted to share a story of my friend, Herro, whose family has lived inspiring lives! I have really enjoyed the travel, friends and wonderful experiences in producing and promoting American Herro, and hope you'll consider renting, purchasing or watching the program (on PBS) in the near future.

Thanks, Kirk Roos

I really enjoyed this film about a young woman, named Herro Mustafa, who comes to the United States with her family as a child. They come from Kurdistan, Iraq, fleeing terror from Sadaam Hussein's regime. To speak of it brings affection to remembrance, because it was a feel-good film. I'd watch it again!!

The part I liked about it was the connection made between family and friends. You can feel the emotions on screen, which makes us relate to the characters all the more. American Herro brings to life the characters, as a usual documentary does. This is a great historical piece on Herro Mustafa, and I believe she is going to be a great lady someday. She already is now, but you just wait...she's got a good head on her shoulders, and that will take her far!!!

I saw this documentary on PBS recently and really enjoyed it. I didn't know anything about Kurds before this film, and was amazed to hear this side of the story about the Iraq war.

The main character, Herro, and her family witnessed nothing short of a miracle. After surviving Saddam killing 100,000's of Kurds, then to live a great life in the U.S., and going all the way up to work at the White House, is a pretty unique story. I don't think too many refugees have done that. So, that was cool.

The movie was very nice, and the director, was also a childhood friend of Herro's. I'm amazed that PBS has done such a good job of finding independent filmmakers with true stories out there, and small films! I did wonder what the budget was. This was one of those that was so small, and personal, that it had that homey sort of feel. A lot of the footage was very cool to look at, they used a lot of old clips from Iraq and the 80's. The only negative was that it felt a little patriotic and it almost seemed to make out the main character as a "hero" instead of "Herro", but maybe that was the point.

It will be interesting to follow the career of this woman now with the new administration.