Kurdish Cinema is promising
Kurdish Cinema is promising
Kurdish Cinema came into existence as a fact during 1990s as a result of Kurd’s struggle for freedom. As the very existence of Kurds has been denied, especially in Turkey, Kurdish people wanted and still want the rest of the world know their sufferings and their resistance against the oppressors. And the other reason for the emergence of the Kurdish Cinema during 1990s was that Kurds had the opportunity to access the television and camera technology and they became able to express themselves in their own language and from their own perspective. Until now Kurdish people have been portrayed in Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi cinema from the ruling states perspective, so Kurdish Cinema make it possible to the Kurds to show and portray themselves in more realistic way from a Kurdish perspective.
Kurdish Cinema is a political cinema
Kurdish people want to express themselves and draw a true picture of Kurds and cinema is creating great opportunity to do that via film art. There has been no single character talking in Kurdish in a film and not many films taking Kurds as the subject matter in the cinema history. However with the emergence of Kurdish Cinema since 1990s for the first time Kurds have the opportunity to hear their own voice and language on the white screen. One reason Kurdish directors making films is to show the life and plea of Kurds to the Kurdish people. Another would be to demonstrate the real image of Kurdish people to the rest of the world. And it is obvious Kurdish Cinema is part of the freedom struggle of Kurdish people to live freely on their native land without facing massacres, state oppressions etc. So it could certainly be said that Kurdish Cinema is a political cinema serving to the Kurdish resistance and freedom struggle.
What draws attention about the topics of the Kurdish films is that Kurdish directors telling the sufferings of Kurds, the desire of Kurds for freedom, to live freely on their own country, and the resistance of Kurds to the oppressors. Also an important subject and metaphor in the films of Kurdish directors is the borders that are dividing Kurdistan. Borders of four different country that are governing the Kurdistan has a immerse affect on the life of Kurds. That is why a lot of Kurdish films deal with this vital issue.
Yýlmaz Güney told the plea of Kurdish people
When we say Kurdish Cinema it is not possible not to mention the great Kurdish director Yilmaz Guney who died in France in 1984. Guney, who was a leftist director from Kurdish background in Turkey, had portrayed the plea of Kurdish people in his films such as Seyithan (1968), Umut (1970), Endise (1974), Suru (1978) and Yol (1982). Although at the time it wasn’t legally possible to openly mention of Kurds in the films in Turkey, nonetheless he had mostly chosen the Kurdish people as a subject matter. By that he was able to show the big gap between Kurdish people and Turkish state and the sufferings of Kurds under the Turkish regime. Guney was a very influential and creative director during his life and that’s why his films left tremendous scars in the Kurdish people’s conscious. For this reason every contemporary Kurdish director always sees him as a legend and try to make a film as good as him.
At the beginning of 1990s Kurdish struggle was at its peak in Turkey and in Iraq. And USA’s interest to topple Saddam’s regime gave great opportunity for Kurds to express themselves via cinema films. And as a result first Kurdish films made during that time like Mem u Zin (directed by Umit Elci), Siyabend u Xece (directed by Sahin Gok) which were filmic version of two Kurdish legend by the same names. And in 1993 Nizamettin Aric made his debut film Klamek Jib o Beko (A Song for Beko) telling the affect of Hallabja massacre commited by Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1988 in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In the mid of 1990’s in Turkey some Kurdish intellectuals started to get orginized to be able to shoot film. They have established Mesopotamian Cinema Collective in Istanbul in 1995. From this collective came out several Kurdish directors including Kazim Oz, Ozkan Kucuk, Huseyin Karabey and so on. Kazim Oz made his first short film Ax (Land) in 1999. Then he shot two feature films Photograph (2002) and Bahoz (Storm-2008)
Diaspora directors
From the Kurdish diaspora a number of Kurdish director came into scene with their films telling the life of Kurds in diaspora. In particular Hiner Saleem living in France made couple of good films. Like Vodka-Lemon, Kilometre Zero and Dol (Valley of Drums). In America Jalal Jonroy made his only feature film David and Layla (2005) telling a love affair between a Kurdish girl and Jewish American man. In Germany Yuksel Yavuz made great features films like “A little bit of freedom” and “The man with a white coat” concentrating on the life of Kurdish refugees and migrants living in Germany.
But the idea and term of Kurdish Cinema become a reality with the coming of Bahman Ghobadi’s films. Ghobadi, a Kurdish director from Iran, got the Golden Camera Award at Cannes Film Festival in 1999 and that made great headlines across the globe. For the first time an overtly Kurdish film got this kind of award and the term Kurdish director, Kurdish Film and Kurdish Cinema have been used ever since in the review of the Ghobadi’s and other Kurdish directors films by western film critics. This in return have encouraged young Kurdish directors to produce short and feature films as well as documentaries with a Kurdish subject. And with the existence of Kurdish satellite TV’s like Roj TV, Kurdistan TV, KurdSat and etc, young Kurdish directors are able to reach a great deal of Kurdish audiences.
Bahman Ghobadi is the most famous Kurdish director
Today we have more than 100 Kurdish directors around the world who are shooting every kind of films, attending international film festivals and even grabbing great awards there. The most famous Kurdish directors are Bahman Ghobadi, Hiner Saleem, Kazim Oz, Jalal Jonroy, Mano Khalil, Miraz Bezar, Hissen Hussein Ali, Yuksel Yavuz, Jano Rosebiani, Jiyar Gol, Jamil rostami and Halil Uysal (aka Halil Dag). Halil Uysal was in the active guerrilla struggle of PKK but at the same time he was a good director. He lost his life in 2009 during a clash between Kurdish guerrillas and Turkish soldiers. He shot several feature films the most known ones are Tirej, Bejna Eyna (Long Mirror) and Beritan. Beritan is about the life of a Kurdish woman guerrilla who lost his life in early 1990s in Iraqi Kurdistan. As a guerrilla-director Halil Uysal made the portrayal of Kurdish guerrillas from the perspective of guerrillas and his films became very popular especially within northern Kurds.
And also we have around ten Kurdish Film Festivals across the world that is giving opportunity to the Kurdish directors to showcase their films for the relevant audiences. The most successful and ongoing festival is the London Kurdish Film Festival.
Kurdish Cinema is an undeniable reality
Today Kurdish Cinema became a concrete reality. With young and mature, men and women Kurdish directors, with Kurdish Film Festivals, with the film company of Kurdish directors, with the great awards Kurdish films grabbed from different international films festivals, with the web sites keeping an eye on Kurdish Cinema like www.kurdishcinema.com, it is an undeniable fact that Kurdish Cinema is developing to become a de-facto cinema industry without the backing of an actual state. Offcourse we do not forget the emergence of de-facto Kurdish state in Iraq in the aftermath of Saddam’s regime has been destroyed in 2003.
The first Kurdish Cinema conference
Last year in December 2009 a conference took place under the name of International Kurdish Cinema Conference in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in Turkey. This conference brought different people working within the frame work of Kurdish Cinema together and gave the opportunity to discuss the diverse aspect of the topic. Earlier same year in June 2009 a book, Kurdish Cinema; Poverty, Border and Death, published in Turkey as a first book on the developing Kurdish Cinema. The young woman Kurdish director Mujde Arslan is the editor of this book and it consist of more than ten individual articles and essays on the different is feature of the Kurdish Cinema.
Young Kurdish directors coming
Young Kurdish directors has to be mentioned here like Mujde Arslan, Arin Inan Arslan, Caner Canerik, Ferit Karahan, Sirin Cihani, Mehdi Hesen, Salim Omar Khalifa, Hatice Kamer, Hisham Zaman, Baran Pasuri, Ozkan Kucuk and many more I didn’t mention here. The young generation of Kurdish directors mostly working on short films and documentaries as making a feature film is a costly business. But most of them despite all odds are indeed shot feature films telling the story of Kurdish people. One of the young Kurdish director Miraz Bezar living in Germany, won the best director award in Istanbul International Film Festival in 2010 for his film Min Dit, a first fully Kurdish language film made in Turkey.,
The feature of Kurdish Cinema is very bright and Kurdish Cinema and films has a very crucial role in the struggle of Kurdish people for freedom. So let’s keep watching Kurdish films because Kurdish films and directors telling real stories and representing real people who until know have been denied the right to express themselves in the art of film.
Kurdish Cinema is a political cinema
Kurdish people want to express themselves and draw a true picture of Kurds and cinema is creating great opportunity to do that via film art. There has been no single character talking in Kurdish in a film and not many films taking Kurds as the subject matter in the cinema history. However with the emergence of Kurdish Cinema since 1990s for the first time Kurds have the opportunity to hear their own voice and language on the white screen. One reason Kurdish directors making films is to show the life and plea of Kurds to the Kurdish people. Another would be to demonstrate the real image of Kurdish people to the rest of the world. And it is obvious Kurdish Cinema is part of the freedom struggle of Kurdish people to live freely on their native land without facing massacres, state oppressions etc. So it could certainly be said that Kurdish Cinema is a political cinema serving to the Kurdish resistance and freedom struggle.
What draws attention about the topics of the Kurdish films is that Kurdish directors telling the sufferings of Kurds, the desire of Kurds for freedom, to live freely on their own country, and the resistance of Kurds to the oppressors. Also an important subject and metaphor in the films of Kurdish directors is the borders that are dividing Kurdistan. Borders of four different country that are governing the Kurdistan has a immerse affect on the life of Kurds. That is why a lot of Kurdish films deal with this vital issue.
Yýlmaz Güney told the plea of Kurdish people
When we say Kurdish Cinema it is not possible not to mention the great Kurdish director Yilmaz Guney who died in France in 1984. Guney, who was a leftist director from Kurdish background in Turkey, had portrayed the plea of Kurdish people in his films such as Seyithan (1968), Umut (1970), Endise (1974), Suru (1978) and Yol (1982). Although at the time it wasn’t legally possible to openly mention of Kurds in the films in Turkey, nonetheless he had mostly chosen the Kurdish people as a subject matter. By that he was able to show the big gap between Kurdish people and Turkish state and the sufferings of Kurds under the Turkish regime. Guney was a very influential and creative director during his life and that’s why his films left tremendous scars in the Kurdish people’s conscious. For this reason every contemporary Kurdish director always sees him as a legend and try to make a film as good as him.
At the beginning of 1990s Kurdish struggle was at its peak in Turkey and in Iraq. And USA’s interest to topple Saddam’s regime gave great opportunity for Kurds to express themselves via cinema films. And as a result first Kurdish films made during that time like Mem u Zin (directed by Umit Elci), Siyabend u Xece (directed by Sahin Gok) which were filmic version of two Kurdish legend by the same names. And in 1993 Nizamettin Aric made his debut film Klamek Jib o Beko (A Song for Beko) telling the affect of Hallabja massacre commited by Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1988 in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In the mid of 1990’s in Turkey some Kurdish intellectuals started to get orginized to be able to shoot film. They have established Mesopotamian Cinema Collective in Istanbul in 1995. From this collective came out several Kurdish directors including Kazim Oz, Ozkan Kucuk, Huseyin Karabey and so on. Kazim Oz made his first short film Ax (Land) in 1999. Then he shot two feature films Photograph (2002) and Bahoz (Storm-2008)
Diaspora directors
From the Kurdish diaspora a number of Kurdish director came into scene with their films telling the life of Kurds in diaspora. In particular Hiner Saleem living in France made couple of good films. Like Vodka-Lemon, Kilometre Zero and Dol (Valley of Drums). In America Jalal Jonroy made his only feature film David and Layla (2005) telling a love affair between a Kurdish girl and Jewish American man. In Germany Yuksel Yavuz made great features films like “A little bit of freedom” and “The man with a white coat” concentrating on the life of Kurdish refugees and migrants living in Germany.
But the idea and term of Kurdish Cinema become a reality with the coming of Bahman Ghobadi’s films. Ghobadi, a Kurdish director from Iran, got the Golden Camera Award at Cannes Film Festival in 1999 and that made great headlines across the globe. For the first time an overtly Kurdish film got this kind of award and the term Kurdish director, Kurdish Film and Kurdish Cinema have been used ever since in the review of the Ghobadi’s and other Kurdish directors films by western film critics. This in return have encouraged young Kurdish directors to produce short and feature films as well as documentaries with a Kurdish subject. And with the existence of Kurdish satellite TV’s like Roj TV, Kurdistan TV, KurdSat and etc, young Kurdish directors are able to reach a great deal of Kurdish audiences.
Bahman Ghobadi is the most famous Kurdish director
Today we have more than 100 Kurdish directors around the world who are shooting every kind of films, attending international film festivals and even grabbing great awards there. The most famous Kurdish directors are Bahman Ghobadi, Hiner Saleem, Kazim Oz, Jalal Jonroy, Mano Khalil, Miraz Bezar, Hissen Hussein Ali, Yuksel Yavuz, Jano Rosebiani, Jiyar Gol, Jamil rostami and Halil Uysal (aka Halil Dag). Halil Uysal was in the active guerrilla struggle of PKK but at the same time he was a good director. He lost his life in 2009 during a clash between Kurdish guerrillas and Turkish soldiers. He shot several feature films the most known ones are Tirej, Bejna Eyna (Long Mirror) and Beritan. Beritan is about the life of a Kurdish woman guerrilla who lost his life in early 1990s in Iraqi Kurdistan. As a guerrilla-director Halil Uysal made the portrayal of Kurdish guerrillas from the perspective of guerrillas and his films became very popular especially within northern Kurds.
And also we have around ten Kurdish Film Festivals across the world that is giving opportunity to the Kurdish directors to showcase their films for the relevant audiences. The most successful and ongoing festival is the London Kurdish Film Festival.
Kurdish Cinema is an undeniable reality
Today Kurdish Cinema became a concrete reality. With young and mature, men and women Kurdish directors, with Kurdish Film Festivals, with the film company of Kurdish directors, with the great awards Kurdish films grabbed from different international films festivals, with the web sites keeping an eye on Kurdish Cinema like www.kurdishcinema.com, it is an undeniable fact that Kurdish Cinema is developing to become a de-facto cinema industry without the backing of an actual state. Offcourse we do not forget the emergence of de-facto Kurdish state in Iraq in the aftermath of Saddam’s regime has been destroyed in 2003.
The first Kurdish Cinema conference
Last year in December 2009 a conference took place under the name of International Kurdish Cinema Conference in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in Turkey. This conference brought different people working within the frame work of Kurdish Cinema together and gave the opportunity to discuss the diverse aspect of the topic. Earlier same year in June 2009 a book, Kurdish Cinema; Poverty, Border and Death, published in Turkey as a first book on the developing Kurdish Cinema. The young woman Kurdish director Mujde Arslan is the editor of this book and it consist of more than ten individual articles and essays on the different is feature of the Kurdish Cinema.
Young Kurdish directors coming
Young Kurdish directors has to be mentioned here like Mujde Arslan, Arin Inan Arslan, Caner Canerik, Ferit Karahan, Sirin Cihani, Mehdi Hesen, Salim Omar Khalifa, Hatice Kamer, Hisham Zaman, Baran Pasuri, Ozkan Kucuk and many more I didn’t mention here. The young generation of Kurdish directors mostly working on short films and documentaries as making a feature film is a costly business. But most of them despite all odds are indeed shot feature films telling the story of Kurdish people. One of the young Kurdish director Miraz Bezar living in Germany, won the best director award in Istanbul International Film Festival in 2010 for his film Min Dit, a first fully Kurdish language film made in Turkey.,
The feature of Kurdish Cinema is very bright and Kurdish Cinema and films has a very crucial role in the struggle of Kurdish people for freedom. So let’s keep watching Kurdish films because Kurdish films and directors telling real stories and representing real people who until know have been denied the right to express themselves in the art of film.
