Film “Kobanê” to be shown on four Kurdish TV channels today and tomorrow

The feature film “Kobanê” by director Özlem Yaşar and the Rojava Film Commune will be shown on four different Kurdish TV channels beginning from today.

The film Kobanê by the Rojava Film Commune will be broadcast on four different Kurdish TV channels today and tomorrow. The film tells the story of Kobanê's resistance against the Islamic State, which surrounded the city in September 2014. Kobanê has become a symbol of hope around the world. For 135 days, the People and Women Defense Units fought street by street and house by house to free the city. On 26 January 2015, the liberation of the city was announced.

The film follows the life of Zehra, a 32-year-old fighter. When the commander of her unit flees, she takes the lead. With great effort, the Kurdish Defense Units YPJ/YPG succeed in breaking through the siege of Kobanê against the military superiority of the ISIS and in liberating the city.

Director Özlem Yaşar and screenwriter Medya Doz met with hundreds of witnesses and fighters to prepare the film. The film, which deals in particular with women's resistance, was shot in the northern Syrian cities of Kobanê and Tabqa. Filming was delayed due to the Turkish attacks on the autonomous region of Northern and Eastern Syria.

The cast of the film "Kobanê" consists mainly of YPG and YPJ fighters who participated in the liberation of the city. For example, Awar Ali, one of the main actors who plays fighter Gelhat, as well as some members of Abu Leyla's Shams Al-Shamal Brigade. Secondary characters such as the mothers who cooked food for the front, teams from the military emergency medicine or those who dug graves for the dead also play themselves.

The film is in Kurdish and has already been shown in various cinemas in Germany with English subtitles. The gala was on 20 September 2022 in Kobanê.

Today the film will be shown on Ronahî TV and Stêrk TV, on 27 January on Jin TV and Medya Haber.