The Rojava Film Commune commemorated director Halil Dağ on the 16th anniversary of his death. Directors from the Commune said that Martyr Halil revived revolutionary cinema and left his mark on Kurdish cinema.

The commemoration ceremony was held at the Mihemed Şêxo Culture and Art Center in Qamishlo.

Halîl Dağ fell as a martyr in an ambush by the Turkish army in the Besta area in the Botan region of Baku Kurdistan on 1 April 2008.

At the commemoration ceremony attended by many commune members, citizens and film directors, a video was shown about Martyr Halil Dağ's work and life, especially during the preparation period for his films.

Speakers at the ceremony said: "Martyr Halil loved his job. That's why he wanted to present something that would set an example to his people and leave a historical legacy."

Halil Uysal

Halil Uysal was born in Germany in 1973 to a Turkish father and a Kurdish mother. When he finished elementary school, the family went back to Turkey. After graduating from a private school in the western Turkish city of Izmir, he returned to Germany in the early 1990s. He was one of the co-founders of the first Kurdish television channel MED TV, which began broadcasting in 1994. Here he also gained his first experiences as a cameraman.

In 1995, during a planned short visit to the Syrian capital Damascus for filming at the PKK party school, he was so impressed by the Kurdish liberation struggle that he decided to stay and join the guerrillas.