-Summer 2014. The armed group Islamic State takes Mosul, Iraq's 2nd largest city, without resistance and rapidly expands its hold on the region. While the whole world discovers with amazement the barbarity of the jihadists who sow terror behind them and promote it on the web, the Kurds of Iraq have to push back this new neighbor and fiercely defend their lands. And for good reason: the Kurds have been divided for more than a century by the borders of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, and have long dreamed of their independence. At 35 million, they are the largest stateless people. As jihadists divide the populations under their control, their presence reinforces the Kurdish desire to assert itself in the new political game of the Middle East. The Kurdish autonomous region, often referred to as the other Iraq, is becoming the main bulwark against the armed group Islamic State. "Kurdistan, de gré ou de force" is a state of play in this little-known territory, which finds itself at the center of a geopolitical and humanitarian situation that is as catastrophic as it is uncertain. This fragmented portrait probes the hearts and memories of the people who keep Kurdistan alive, willingly or unwillingly.