Kurdish Film Festival

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Global Kurdish Film Festival
https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... rowse-all/

free streamings till April 27th (16-27 April 2021).

London Kurdish Film Festival
https://www.lkff.co.uk/

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No1
LOVE IN THE FACE OF GENOCIDE (Shero Hinde, 2020) 52 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... -genocide/
The Dengbêj are Kurdish poets and bards; singing storytellers who pass from generation to generation tales that would have otherwise been lost in time. Commonly singing without any musical accompaniment, the songs encompass a variety of profound themes including love, war, family, lullabies, journeys, and other experiences. Thus, the historically persecuted Yazidi Kurds maintain this medium of communication and artistic heritage in a bid to document their stories for generations to come.

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No2
CASÎME CELÎL (Celil Badikanlı, Özlem Diler, 2021) 55 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... ime-celil/
Casimê Celîl was born into a Yezidi Kurdish family in 1908, in a village called Kizilkule, located in Digor, Kars. The village and family life, which he longed to remember throughout his life, ends with the massacre they endured in 1918. During his long road to Erivan, Armenia, he lost all his family members. Left all alone, Casim was placed into an orphanage and was forced to change his name. To remember who he was and where he came from, every morning he repeated the mantra, “My name is Casim, I am the son of Celîl, I come from the village of Kizilkule in Digor, I am a Kurd, and I am Yezidi”. He clings to every piece of his culture he can find, reads, and saves whatever Kurdish literature or art he comes across. As the year’s pass, Casim finds himself with an impressive collection of Kurdish culture and history.

Today, the very same house is a well-known Kurdish institution where more than 20 thousand pieces of literature about the Kurdish culture can be found. The institution also has thousands of pieces of Kurdish music which they have digitalized along with an impressive amount of Kurdish books, photos, and letters which are one day hoped to be gifted to the schools of Kurdistan. In other words, the house has become a place not only filled with one family’s story but an institution, open to anyone interested in Kurdish history.

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No3
DECAY (Avin Sharifi, 2021) 13 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.com/film/decay/
The young man is a painter who is in a place that acts as both his place of residence and his painting workshop, despite immense paranoia by living alone, and with mental health problems.

[sally]

interesting with a soupçon of despair. that deadline when they all disappear is far too soon!

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No4
THE ROTATION (Hazhir As'adi, 2020) 7 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... -rotation/
There is a war between two tribes both claiming the sun in the sky. As a result of that war, the sun annihilates and a volcano erupts. Those two tribes are now dead and a new sun is made, both by that lava. Will this be the end of the conflict in the world?

No5
WOOD (Yasin Zohrabi, 2020) 5 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.com/film/wood/
People cut down trees and turn them into products, but these products can unite and execute humans.

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No6
DANCE OF LOVE (Mohammad Farajzadeh, 2020) 7 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... e-of-love/
Dance of Love is about the life of an elderly couple. A wife who has been suffering from diabetes and Alzheimer’s for 16 years, hasn’t left her home in over seven years. Her husband takes care of her and the love for his wife leads him to paint all the walls of his backyard for her.

No7
THE WHIMPER AND EXISTENCE (Hossein Allahyari, 2020) 16 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... existence/
A documentary exploring the different ways in which everyone experiences the world from one another. From architecture to nature, experience how a village can be built and how one can be destroyed.

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No8
THE STAIN (Shoresh Vakili, 2020) 13 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... the-stain/
A story of an old man who works in a cinema salo as a cleaner. His past life and the decisions he has made have resurfaced when he finds a stain on the cinema screen that represents much more.

No9
THE KITES (Seyed Payam Hosseini, 2020) 14 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... the-kites/
A minefield on the border divides a boy from a girl who flies her kite across the plains. One day, she attempts to send him a message through a note attached to the kite but it haplessly lands in the minefield. Hereon, the boy’s dangerous and perilous pursuit begins to retrieve the note.

No10
HARMAN (Mohammad Farajzadeh, 2020) 29 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.com/film/harman/
Kurdish dance is a tradition of cultural heritage, performed in different ceremonies. With the explanation of the culture, this documentary analyses them from different points to uncover the secret hidden beauties. Watch as Harman narrates the philosophy of Kurdish dance and its traditional dresses.

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No11
ABUR: MIGRATORY BIRDS (Gül Ertunan Karaaslan, Sedat Kiran, 2020) 74 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... ory-birds/
Nomadism is the oldest socio-economic activity in the world, based on the relationship between manpower, animal, and nature. In Northern Kurdistan, the animal life-sustaining communities and tribes continue living their nomadic lifestyle, without being bound to the soil. This documentary is a three-year observation of the Kurdish Koçer nomads.

No12
KABAN (Mohammed Jalal, 2020) 6 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.com/film/kaban/
The concept of swapping girls was a popular norm in Southern Kurdistan. They exchanged girls for marriage without getting their consent. Kaban is one of the thousands of girls who faced the tragedy of swapping girls at a young age.

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No13
SHIRIN AND FARHAD (Rahim Karimzadeh, 2018) 10 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... nd-farhad/
This animation short film is based on the old myths of Shirin and Farhad and has a critical look at the impact of the media on humans and native cultures.

No14
MOURNING • ŞÎN (Mehmet İsmail Çeçen, 2020) 8 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.com/film/sin/
When the villages in Siirt Botan Stream were flooded by the Ilisu dam, some of the villagers were forced to leave their dead behind in the village. This is a story of those caught between the will of the dead and their own conscience.

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No15
EVERY HOME IS A SCHOOL (Ardîn Dîren, 2019) 60 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... -a-school/
The story of families seeking to undo decades of repression and assimilation of the Kurdish language by taking matters into their hands. Now, every home is a school. A banned language, a sealed school, children studying in their mother tongue at home, and families who convert their homes to schools. ‘Every home is a school’ is the story of defiant people who seek to revive and keep alive a forbidden language.

Farzad Kamangar... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farzad_Kamangar

No16
ZEHRA AND THE OTHERS – TERRORISTS (Marica Casalinuovo, Francesca Nava, Vichie Chinaglia, Marella Bombini, 2019) 52 min

Zehra Doğan is a 29-year-old woman. She has a Kurdish/Turkish ethnicity and has been in prison with the charge of being a terrorist. Zehra is a journalist, but above all, she is a painter and it’s because of a painting that she is charged with the accusation of terrorism. However, she is not the only woman who is accused and has paid her freedom for a crime she did not commit. Also Asli Erdogan, a world-known Turkish writer, despite her last name, has served 136 days in prison, with the charge of being a terrorist of the PKK. And then there is Sebnem Korur Fincanci. She too was incarcerated and accused of terrorism. Sebnem is actually a university professor of forensic medicine and a well-known activist for human rights. She is known internationally for solving clamorous torture cases. All three of them have dared to express dissent against the actual politics of their country and against the cruel war that Erdoğan is conducting against the ambitions of the Kurds. Three women, different for age, ethnicity, background, but whose stories come together dramatically in the description of some crucial events that took place in Turkey in the last five years. Asli and Sebnem today are free, even though they are still waiting for the final verdict. After three years of prison for a watercolor, Zehra has been freed on 24 February 2019. But her fighting and independent spirit of a Kurdish woman has found a way to “escape” before that day, through a clandestine letter she sent from the very tough prison where she was locked up. The letter was delivered through her lawyers and she narrates her story, her fight, and the harsh days of her imprisonment.

The Directors of the Documentary are four Italian women: Francesca Nava who is also the investigative journalist of the film, Marica Casalinuovo, Vichie Chinaglia, and Marella Bombini. This team signed the film under the name of Creative Nomads, an Independent Italian Production Company.

Zehra Doğan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zehra_Do%C4%9Fan

Aslı Erdoğan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asl%C4%B1_Erdo%C4%9Fan
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1 ... sl_Erdo_an

Banksy Returns to New York With a Powerful Tribute to Jailed Turkish Artist Zehra Doğan
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/banks ... ll-1246226

Nusaybin... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusaybin
On 13 November 2015, the town was placed under a curfew by the Turkish government, and Ali Atalan and Gülser Yıldırım, two elected members of the Grand National Assembly from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), began a hunger strike in protest. Two civilians and ten PKK fighters were killed by security forces in the ensuing unrest. By March 2016, PKK forces controlled about half of Nusaybin according to Al-Masdar News and the YPS controlled "much" of it, according to The Independent. The Turkish state imposed eight successive curfews over several months and employed the use of heavy weapons in defeating the Kurdish militants, resulting in large swathes of Nusaybin being destroyed. 61 members of the security forces had been killed by May 2016. By 9 April, 60,000 residents of the city had been displaced, yet 30,000 civilians remained in the city, including in the six neighborhoods where fighting continued. YPS reportedly had 700–800 militants in the city, of which the Turkish army claimed that 325 were "neutralised" by 4 May. A curfew was in place between 14 March and 25 July in the majority of the town. After the fighting ended in a Turkish Army victory, in late September 2016 the Turkish government began demolishing a quarter of the city's residential buildings. This rendered 30,000 citizens homeless and caused a mass evacuation of tens of thousands of residents to neighboring towns and villages. Over 6,000 houses were bulldozed. After demolition was completed in March 2017, over one hundred apartment towers were built. The Turkish government offered to compensate homeowners at 12% of the value of their destroyed houses if they agreed to certain relocation conditions.

Zehra Doğan

Cizre... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cizre
On 14 December 2015, Turkish military operations resumed in Cizre, and the curfew was renewed. The military operation continued until 11 February, but the curfew was maintained until 2 March. During the clashes between 24 July 2015 and 30 June 2016 at Cizre, the Turkish Armed Forces claimed 674 PKK militants were killed or captured, and 24 military and police officers were killed. The Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects reported that four neighbourhoods were completely destroyed, with 1200 buildings severely damaged and approximately 10,000 buildings damaged, and c. 110,000 people fled the district. The Turkish government announced plans in April 2016 to rebuild damaged 2700 houses in a project estimated to cost 4 billion Turkish lira. The Turkish physician Dr Şebnem Korur Fincanci was arrested and imprisoned on charges of involvement in the propaganda of terrorism by the Turkish government on 20 June 2016 as a consequence of her report on conditions in Cizre after the end of the curfew in March 2016; she was later acquitted in July 2019.

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No17
REMAINING IN DERIK (Onur Can Atli, 2020) 15 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... -in-derik/
The last three Armenians staying in the Derik district of Mardin, North Kurdistan.
In these lands which have hosted many civilizations in history, Armenians are one of the first nations arriving in Derik. They were vast in number and lived in friendship, peace, and love with the people of the region without any language and race discrimination. Now just three remain.

No18
THE SUGAR GROCER (Ferman Narin, 2020) 20 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... ar-grocer/
Salih is a neighborhood grocery store owner living alone in a monotonous life. One day with an order coming in, he will come out of this monotony and experience the most traumatic day of his life.

No19
THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS (Mahsum Taskin, 2020) 17 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... ne-nights/
Seyithan is a 12-year old boy from a small and rural Kurdish village. Just before the school break, he receives a copy of The Thousand and One Nights, and whilst disinterested at first, he reads through intensively by candlelight following a power cut in the village. Impassioned and brimming with a desire to unearth the ending, Seyithan embarks on a bold mission to ascertain the missing parts of the tales.

after finishing No19, watched less than half of No20 (it seemed interesting) however meanwhile...... "rental expired". will have to "embark on a bold mission to ascertain the missing parts of the tales" some other time. over!

No20
THE OTHER (Ako Zandkarimi, Saman Hosseinpour, 2020) 25 min

https://www.globalkurdishfilmfestival.c ... the-other/
A teenage girl and her father reside in a remote, mountainous Kurdish village. Upon the death of the mother, the father’s perception of his daughter is altered following certain revelations.