|
VERDICT (Biriyar)
Director: Remzi Kazmaz
Turkey 2004 / 30m / Turkish with English subtitles / 15
The tragicomic events surrounding the trail of the perpetrators
of the Gazi events in Istanbul. An exploration of Turkish
justice in action through the eyes of the film maker who represented
the families of the victims.
+ MEHDI ZANA, TORTURED TO LIFE (Mehdi Zana, Ciyazê
Iflkencey ê Ji Bo Dirêjayiya Jiyanê)
Director: Kudret Gunes
France 2004 / 58m / Kurdish, Turkish and French with English
subtitles / 15
The portrait of a man whose fate shows how difficult it
is to be a Kurd in exile today. Mehdi was the first Kurdish
mayor of Diyarbakir, Turkey. He was elected in 1977 and has
been one of the main protagonists in the history of the Kurds
over the past thirty years. His dramatic story illustrates
the chaotic history of those years during which he never ceased
to fight for the recognition of his people's right to exist.
He is now a political refugee in Sweden, where, he is trying
to make a life for himself in a society which bears little
resemblance to his own.
Sat 23 Oct 4.15 + Kudret Gunes
Kirkuk: moments between war and peace (Kerkuk, Di Dema,
fer û Aflitîye De)
Director: Ravin Asaf
Kurdistan 2004 / 31m / Kurdish with English subtitles / 15
Many Kurds and Turkmens, forced out oil-rich city of Kirkuk
by Saddam’s Arabisation policy, started returning to
Kirkuk after the overthrow of the Iraqi regime. Ravin Asaf
offers a slice of life from the city which is now at the centre
of a tense stand off between competing claims.
 +
CHEMICAL ALI (Eliyê Kimyewî)
Director: Kawa Akreyi
Kurdistan 2004 / 60m / Kurdish, Arabic with English subtitles
/ 18
A timely documentary about Saddam's henchman Chemical Ali
and his victims. Chemical Ali got his name because of his
role in the gassing of five thousand Kurds in Halabja. Interviews
with his victims and his home videos unmask one of the most
brutal members of the Saddam's regime.
Sun 24 Oct 1.45 + Ravin Asaf & Kawa Akreyi
 BODY
VERSES (Ayeten Bodenê)
Director: Ihan Bakirhan
Kurdistan 2003 / 55m / Kurdish with English subtitles / PG
Tattoos are verses on the human body. They can represent
the sign of a clan, the longing for a lover or a wish. Or
they can just stop a snake bite, a husband remarrying, or
headaches. So what does the rich tapestry of tattoos tell
us? This is the the story of this alphabet of shadows and
light, invented in the east a thousand years ago.
 +
FAR (Dûr)
Director: Kazim Öz
Kurdistan 2003 / 65m / Kurdish with English subtitles / PG
A documentary about a village, which was once populous and
lively, but now is silent with only a few old people remaining.
The village, Kurmesan in Pertek, Dersim, is empty because
of the atmosphere of war, migration and economic factors.
Most of the villagers have migrated, some of them to the big
Turkish cities, the majority to Europe. The film presents
the lives, thoughts and dreams of those who have left and
those that remain. It also explores the gap between the generations.
Tue 2 Nov 8.45 (FAR also shows Sat 23 Oct 11.15pm
with MEHMET AND MEHMET)
 FAR
AWAY FROM HOME (Dûrî Malê)
Director: Guliz Saglam
Germany 2003 / 29m / Kurmanji & Turkish with English subtitles
/ PG
The story of Kurdish people who were forcibly displaced
to Istanbul from Mardin. Most of them now live in Tarlabasi
and earn a living by making and selling stuffed mussels. The
film reveals their struggles and yearnings and listens as
they unburden their hearts.
+ MEHMET AND MEHMET (Mehmet û Mehmet)
Directors: Paolo Colombo & Michela Guberti
Italy 2004 / 33m / English narration & subtitles / PG
This documentary stems from the filmmakers' encounter with
two musicians in a tavern in Beyoglu, where every night a
group of recent immigrants to the city gathers for an evening
of intense and emotional respite from the hardships of life
in Istanbul. The patrons of the tavern are Alevis, a religious
minority of sixteen million people in Turkey. They follow
a set of beliefs expounded by Haci Bektafl, a XIII century
Turkish mystic, that hinge on the sacredness of the individual.
This film is a glimpse at the lives of the two musicians and
the story of a special friendship, sustained not by intimacy,
but by mutual trust, respect and love of music.
 +
FASTING TO TOPPLE WALLS (Rojîgirtin ji bo
Xistina Dîwaran)
Director: Yusuf Yesiloz
Switzerland 2003 / 52m / German, Kurmanji & Turkish with
English subtitles/15
This film looks at the lives of Kurdish political prisoners
who have been through the brutality of the Turkish penal system.
Cemal Miran, was arrested in 1980 and tortured on a daily
basis. Miran went on a hunger strike in protest, as did many
prisoners. He fell into a coma, and has been disabled ever
since. The film follows him and other victims as they try
to rebuild their lives. Shocking and eye-opening.
Thur 28 Oct 2.00pm
Mon 1 Nov 6.30pm
(MEHMET AND MEHMET also shows Sat 23 Oct 11.15pm with
FAR)
A COUNTRY, A TIME AND A MAN (Welat, Demek, Mirovek)
Director: Huseyin Karabey
Turkey 2004 / 42m / Turkish with English subtitles / 15
The life and times of trade unionist Necati Aydin who was
abducted from the State Security Court in 1994.
Fri 29 Oct 6.45pm (with DELICATE PAIN) +
Huseyin Karabey
 PESHMARGHA
(THOSE WHO DIE FIRST) (Pêsmerge)
Directors: Peri Ibrahim & Doug Aubrey
Scotland 2004 / 13m / in English / 15
Earlier this year, Glasgow resident Peri Ibrahim and documentarist
Doug Aubrey visited Kurdistan. It had been more than fifteen
years since Peri had been to Kurdistan ›a country which
doesn't exist" - and even longer since he'd held a Kalashnikov.
Did his trip result in a last journey back home or a new call
to arms? This will be a work-in-progress screening and an
opportunity to quiz both film-makers about just how Peri's
remarkable story will eventually reach the screen.
 +
SADDAM’S MASS GRAVES (Gorên Komkujiyên
Seddam)
Director: Jano Rosebiani
Kurdistan 2004 / 58m / Kurdish with English subtitles / 15
Inspired by the examples of Cambodia and South Africa, where
the uncovering of truths about previous atrocities led to
a process of reconciliation, the Iraqi Kurdish filmmaker Jano
Rosebiani returned home just before the outbreak of war in
2003. His aim was to document the discovery of mass grave
sites, over two hundred of which have been uncovered in the
past year. As well as his use of chemical and biological weapons,
Saddam commonly engaged in the mass burial of civilians, many
of whom were interred while they were still alive. Rosebiani
interviews coalition officials, human rights representatives,
and survivors, setting the record straight about the collective
suffering of Iraqis.
Sat 30 Oct 4.00pm + Peri Ibrahim & Doug Aubrey
 WAR
IS OVER! (Fer bi Dawî Bû!)
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Iran 2003 / 50m / Kurdish with English subtitles / 15
Immediately after Saddam Hussein's fall, the prize winning
director of A Time for Drunken Horses and Marooned in Iraq
travels to Iraq to arrange screenings of his work. An Iranian
Kurd himself, Bahman Ghobadi is eager to bring cinema back
to people for whom it has ceased to exist. Upon arriving in
Baghdad, however, he discovers that film screenings are a
soft target for terrorist attacks, and that people are afraid
to attend. So he travels to the Kurdish region in the north,
where everybody he encounters attests to the brutality of
Saddam's regime. This impromptu sketchbook, a kind of prelude
to Ghobadi' next feature film TURTLES CAN FLY, reflects the
postwar confusion and it succeeds in capturing an unforgettable
slice of reality.
Sun 24 Oct 4.15pm
Sun 31 Oct 4.30pm
|
