Speaking over footage filmed at the funeral of a female army commander, documentary-maker Maryam Ebrahimi notes that it’s the first time she has seen women carrying a coffin in the Middle East. As they move through crowd of mourners, she adds: “Their sisterhood amazes me.” Ebrahimi is talking about the women of Rojava, the Kurdish-led autonomous socialist region in northern Syria. At the cemetery, the women dig the soil with their bare hands; it is a tradition in Rojava, a final act of solidarity with their fallen sister.

Ebrahimi’s tender, gentle film is about a home for injured army veterans in Rojava; most are survivors of the war against Islamic State (IS). The house is mixed genders; one of the men living there is Fadakhar, who has had both his legs amputated and is haunted at night by phantom itches and pains. Mostly, though, Ebrahimi’s gaze is drawn to the female veterans, who made headlines a decade ago for their courage on the battlefield. We learn that women started leaving their villages to fight IS in 2011 – though in truth a little more background about the history of Kurdish all-female battalions might have been helpful.

The commander in charge of the house is an Iranian Kurd called Sorkhin, whose gentleness and warmth seem at odds with her reputation; she is famous in Rojava for saving Yazidi women and girls held as slaves by IS. Sorkhin says her mission has always been the same: “Everything I have done is for women … I want women to live as human beings.” Like many commanders she lives in a constant state of hyper-vigilance, a target for drones sent by Turkey to assassinate Kurdish military leaders. Another resident in the house is Zarin, an expert sniper who served under Sorkhin, and was shot in the head. Zarin’s brain injury has mostly robbed her of speech but she tells the camera, beaming: “I was wounded for democracy.” Incredibly moving.

• The Phantom Pain of Rojava is at Bertha DocHouse, London from 31 July.