Welcome to the 2nd London Kurdish Film Festival!

Films, both new and old, will explore the rich diversity of Kurdish culture and provide London cinemagoers with the opportunity to discover Kurdish Cinema. Following the success of last year’s event, this year the festival expands to two weeks and will present an amazing variety of feature films, documentaries and shorts, from all over the world, made by Kurdish film makers or about Kurdish issues. There will also be discussions with filmmakers and workshops. Many of the films in the Festival focus on the Halabja Massacre of 17 March 1988, when 5,000 Kurdish people died as a result of Saddam Hussein’s chemical gas bombardment.

Feature film highlights include: Kurdish filmmaker Jano Rosebiani’s JIYAN, the first feature film made about the Halabja Massacre, winner of the special jury award at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival; MAROONED IN IRAQ, the eagerly anticipated second feature film of Bahman Ghobadi, whose previous A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES was a highlight of last year’s festival; the British premiere of Handan Ipekci’s HEJAR (Büyük Adam Küçük Ask), this controversial film was nominated to represent Turkey at the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category and then banned in Turkey; Roland Suso Richter’s A HANDFUL OF GRASS from Germany portrays the Kurdish exile experience through the eyes of a child; an opportunity to re-view a critically acclaimed film by Abbas Kiarostami, THE WIND WILL CARRY US; Nino Jacusso’s ESCAPE TO PARADISE tells the story of a Kurdish family who claim asylum in Switzerland; the first feature film scripted and filmed by Kurdish guerrilla fighters, TIREJ; a preview of Michael Winterbottom and Tony Grisoni’s IN THIS WORLD, a powerful road movie capturing the desperate struggles of refugees to cross Europe; a rare chance to see three classic Kurdish films: Umit Elci’s MEM AND ZIN (1991), Nizamettin Aric’s A SONG FOR BEKO (1992) and Sahin Gok’s SIYABEND AND XACE (1993); the UK premiere of Tayfun Pirselimoglu’s INNOWHERELAND, the story of a mother’s attempts to find her politically active son who has disappeared; Hiner Saleem’s LONG LIVE THE BRIDE… AND THE LIBERATION OF KURDISTAN, a vibrant comedy set amidst the 100,000-strong Kurdish community in Paris; Ibrahim Selman’s A SILENT TRAVELLER, the story of divided loyalties in a Kurdish village; Kadir Sozen’s WINTERFLOWER telling the story of a deported immigrant’s struggle to sneak back into Germany to be re-united with his wife and son; Elizabeth Rygard’s HOUSE OF HEARTS about a seven-year-old boy, Osman, whose parents leave Turkey to work in Europe; Ravin Asaf’s YELLOW DAYS, from Germany also focuses on the Halabja massacre and expresses the Kurdish people’s optimistic outlook on life.

Documentary highlights include a documentary about the first elected Kurdish woman to the Turkish Parliament, Leyla Zana by Kudret Gunes.

The programme will be complemented by an eclectic mix of short and low budget films, including Simon Brown and Maria Pavlou’s RIGHTS OF PASSAGE, an excellent short fiction film by students at Leeds Metropolitan University, about two Kurdish friends trying to cross the Channel to get to England.

Invited guests include: Ravin Asaf (director YELLOW DAYS), Miraz Bezar (director BERIVAN), Umit Elci (director MEM AND ZIN), Fidan Firat (actress ESCAPE TO PARADISE), Bahman Ghobadi (director MAROONED IN IRAQ), Huseyin Karabey (filmmaker), Jano Rosebiani (director JIYAN), Hiner Saleem (director LONG LIVE THE BRIDE…), Ayten Mutlu Saray (director DEATH IN EXILE), Ibrahim Selman (director A SILENT TRAVELLER) and Kadir Sozen (director WINTERFLOWER, producer YELLOW DAYS).

All films will have English subtitles except several short films and documentaries.

The festival is presented by the Kurdish Film Festival Organising Committee in conjunction with the Rio Cinema.

Introduction by Bahman Ghobadi

Nothing is more pleasurable than having an all Kurdish cast and crew when making a full-length feature - Kurdish players, assistants and production group – especially if they are from the mountainous areas of Kurdistan. You speak in Kurdish to everyone involved and the script and dialogue are in the same language.

It is, at the same time, a shame and depressing that one hundred years after the birth of cinema, we do not have a branch called "Kurdish cinema", despite everything I have just mentioned.

A strange thing has happened in the Kurdistan of today: there are fewer parents wishing their children to become engineers or doctors, but most of them wish their children to be film makers. Today in Kurdistan more than two hundred young Kurdish boys and girls are busy learning the art of filmmaking. In the street where I live, there are twelve of these filmmakers. A friend of mine, who was a taxi driver, has now sold his taxi, bought a film camera and is making a film.

You can find the best short films of the present day among the young Kurdish filmmakers in Kurdistan. Iran's Kurdistan province is in the top flight of short-film making. You can see the camera and the filming group in the richest and poorest parts of the province and it has become a matter-of-fact, everyday event in the lives of the people. People will even come to you to see if you need help and residents in the area will even bring us tea from nearby houses.

It is strange and I am happy too that during the making of two full length films so many good things happened to me in Kurdistan. This of course has nothing to do with Bahman Ghobadi, it is the nature of the cinema. It is a magical potion that has enchanted the Kurds. These days you do not see anyone with a weapon in their hands, but the camera, the greatest cultural weapon of our age, has replaced the gun.

More interesting is the fact that I have been receiving a number of letters inviting me to various Kurdish festivals world-wide, in England, Argentina, Iraq, Turkey, Germany, etc. I hereby congratulate all my friends who are energetically following up such important events. I hope that I can make two or three full-length Kurdish films in the next few years and witness the display of twenty to thirty Kurdish films in such festivals.