CAN - HIS WORLD HAS ITS OWN RULES

Director: Züli Aladag
Cast: Oktay Özdemir, August Zirner, Corinna Harfouch, Rober Höller, Ralph Herforth.

Germany 2006 / 90m / Turkish, German with English subtitles / 15

Critically acclaimed, multi-award winning film from German-based Kurdish director Aladag, detailing the conflict between Can (Özdemir), the son of Turkish immigrants, and the Laubs, a seemingly liberal middle class family. Living in a safe and quiet Berlin district, literature professor Simon Laub (Zirner) and wife Christa (Harfouch) have their lives turned upside down when their son Felix (Höller) gets into trouble with Can. Provoked by Can's intimidating threats towards his family, Simon goes against his politically correct attitude and humiliates Cal - setting in motion a vicious circle of anger and violence. A riveting examination of the confrontation of beliefs and principles in the modern world.

CROSSING THE DUST

Director : Shawkat Amin Korki
Cast: Adil Abdolrahman, Hossein Hasan, Abdola Awayd, Aba Rash, Ayam Akra.

France-South Kurdistan (Iraq) 2006 / 73m / Kurdish (Sorani) and Arabic with English subtitles / PG

A road movie set in Iraq in 2003 during the fall of Saddam. Two Kurdish Peshmarghas, Azad and Rashid, are looking for the parents of a five-year-old Arab boy who they found in the street in tears. His name is Saddam too. At the same time the boy's parents are looking for him everywhere, worried because of the boy's name which is now taboo. All the attempts of the two Kurds to get rid of the child fail: neither the Americans nor the men of religion at the mosque want him. Little Saddam begins to become a real problem. In the streets and all around them, they are surrounded by the chaos and crazy atmosphere of those days, with violence always on the verge of exploding.

YAZIDI KURDS

Director : A.Martirosyan
Cast: H. Nersisyan, T. Hakobyan, A Avetisyan, M. Manvelyan, Khano - M.Janan, G. Avetyan, T. Ayvazyan, L. Zavaryan, Kh. Abrahamyan, K. Geghamyan, G. Yeghiazaryan, S. Mirzoyan.

Armenia 1932 / 52m / silent with Russian and English subtitles / PG

Following our screening last year of ZARE, the first film ever made on the Kurds, we are delighted to present another classic Armenian film. Yazidis are primarily ethnic Kurds, mostly living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq, and are adherents of the smallest of the three branches of Yazdânism, a Middle Eastern religion with ancient Indo-European roots. This moving film focuses on the establishment of collective farming in a Kurdish village in Armenia, home to thousands of Yazidi Kurds. 0n the 14th August this year Yazidi Kurds suffered a most deadly terrorist attack. The suicide bombings in Kahtaniya and al-Jazeera villages in the northern Nineveh province of Iraq left more than 500 dead and at least 200 injured. This screening is dedicated to the memory of those killed in this attack, the most lethal since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and also to the memory of Hrant Dink, prominent Armenia journalist and friend of the Kurds who was assassinated by a Turkish nationalist in Turkey on 19 January 2007.

DOL: THE VALLEY OF TAMBOURINES

Director: Hiner Saleem
Cast: Nazmî Kirik, Belçim Bilgin, Ömer Çiaw Sin.

South Kurdistan (Iraq)-France-Germany 2006 / 90m / Kurdish (Kurmanji & Sorani) with English subtitles / 12A

The Turkish-Kurdish village of Balliova borders Iran and Iraq, and is the site of border disputes that have devastated the area. With Kurdish guerrilla fighters active, the Turkish military patrol the area, oppressively clamping down at the mere hint of violence or aggression. It's in these circumstances that villagers Azad and his fiancée Nazenin are to be married, but their plans are ruined when a fight with Turkish soldiers breaks out during their wedding ceremony, resulting in a Turkish commandant being shot and Azad going on the run, leaving Nazenin behind. Azad embarks on an odyssey that takes him to Kurdish regions in both Iran and Iraq, revealing and revelling in diverse aspects of his peoples' culture and circumstances.