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VERDICT (Biriyar)
Director: Remzi Kazmaz
Turkey 2004 / 30m / Turkish with
English subtitles / 15
The tragicomic events surrounding the trail of the
perpetrators of the Gazi events in Istanbul. An exploration of
Turkish justice in action through the eyes of the film maker
who represented the families of the victims.
+ MEHDI ZANA, TORTURED TO LIFE (Mehdi Zana, Ciyazê
Iflkencey ê Ji Bo Dirêjayiya Jiyanê)
Director: Kudret Gunes
France 2004 / 58m / Kurdish,
Turkish and French with English subtitles / 15
The portrait of a man whose fate shows how difficult it is
to be a Kurd in exile today. Mehdi was the first Kurdish mayor
of Diyarbakir, Turkey. He was elected in 1977 and has been one
of the main protagonists in the history of the Kurds over the
past thirty years. His dramatic story illustrates the chaotic
history of those years during which he never ceased to fight
for the recognition of his people's right to exist. He is now
a political refugee in Sweden, where, he is trying to make a
life for himself in a society which bears little resemblance
to his own.
Sat 23 Oct 4.15 + Kudret Gunes
Kirkuk: moments between war and peace (Kerkuk, Di Dema,
fer û Aflitîye De)
Director: Ravin Asaf
Kurdistan 2004 / 31m / Kurdish with
English subtitles / 15
Many Kurds and Turkmens, forced out oil-rich city of Kirkuk
by Saddam’s Arabisation policy, started returning to Kirkuk
after the overthrow of the Iraqi regime. Ravin Asaf offers a
slice of life from the city which is now at the centre of a
tense stand off between competing claims.
 + CHEMICAL ALI (Eliyê
Kimyewî)
Director: Kawa Akreyi
Kurdistan 2004 / 60m / Kurdish,
Arabic with English subtitles / 18
A timely documentary about Saddam's henchman Chemical Ali
and his victims. Chemical Ali got his name because of his role
in the gassing of five thousand Kurds in Halabja. Interviews
with his victims and his home videos unmask one of the most
brutal members of the Saddam's regime.
Sun 24 Oct 1.45 + Ravin Asaf & Kawa Akreyi
 BODY VERSES (Ayeten Bodenê)
Director: Ihan Bakirhan
Kurdistan 2003 / 55m / Kurdish
with English subtitles / PG
Tattoos are verses on the human body. They can represent
the sign of a clan, the longing for a lover or a wish. Or they
can just stop a snake bite, a husband remarrying, or
headaches. So what does the rich tapestry of tattoos tell us?
This is the the story of this alphabet of shadows and light,
invented in the east a thousand years ago.
 + FAR (Dûr)
Director: Kazim Öz
Kurdistan 2003 / 65m / Kurdish with
English subtitles / PG
A documentary about a village, which was once populous and
lively, but now is silent with only a few old people
remaining. The village, Kurmesan in Pertek, Dersim, is empty
because of the atmosphere of war, migration and economic
factors. Most of the villagers have migrated, some of them to
the big Turkish cities, the majority to Europe. The film
presents the lives, thoughts and dreams of those who have left
and those that remain. It also explores the gap between the
generations.
Tue 2 Nov 8.45 (FAR also shows Sat 23 Oct 11.15pm
with MEHMET AND MEHMET)
 FAR AWAY FROM HOME (Dûrî Malê)
Director: Guliz Saglam
Germany 2003 / 29m / Kurmanji
& Turkish with English subtitles / PG
The story of Kurdish people who were forcibly displaced to
Istanbul from Mardin. Most of them now live in Tarlabasi and
earn a living by making and selling stuffed mussels. The film
reveals their struggles and yearnings and listens as they
unburden their hearts.
+ MEHMET AND MEHMET (Mehmet û Mehmet)
Directors: Paolo Colombo & Michela Guberti
Italy
2004 / 33m / English narration & subtitles / PG
This documentary stems from the filmmakers' encounter with
two musicians in a tavern in Beyoglu, where every night a
group of recent immigrants to the city gathers for an evening
of intense and emotional respite from the hardships of life in
Istanbul. The patrons of the tavern are Alevis, a religious
minority of sixteen million people in Turkey. They follow a
set of beliefs expounded by Haci Bektafl, a XIII century
Turkish mystic, that hinge on the sacredness of the
individual. This film is a glimpse at the lives of the two
musicians and the story of a special friendship, sustained not
by intimacy, but by mutual trust, respect and love of
music.
 + FASTING TO TOPPLE WALLS
(Rojîgirtin ji bo Xistina Dîwaran)
Director: Yusuf Yesiloz
Switzerland 2003 / 52m / German,
Kurmanji & Turkish with English subtitles/15
This film looks at the lives of Kurdish political prisoners
who have been through the brutality of the Turkish penal
system. Cemal Miran, was arrested in 1980 and tortured on a
daily basis. Miran went on a hunger strike in protest, as did
many prisoners. He fell into a coma, and has been disabled
ever since. The film follows him and other victims as they try
to rebuild their lives. Shocking and eye-opening.
Thur 28 Oct 2.00pm
Mon 1 Nov 6.30pm
(MEHMET AND
MEHMET also shows Sat 23 Oct 11.15pm with FAR)
A COUNTRY, A TIME AND A MAN (Welat, Demek,
Mirovek)
Director: Huseyin Karabey
Turkey 2004 / 42m / Turkish
with English subtitles / 15
The life and times of trade unionist Necati Aydin who was
abducted from the State Security Court in 1994.
Fri 29 Oct 6.45pm (with DELICATE PAIN) +
Huseyin Karabey
 PESHMARGHA (THOSE WHO DIE FIRST)
(Pêsmerge)
Directors: Peri Ibrahim & Doug Aubrey
Scotland 2004
/ 13m / in English / 15
Earlier this year, Glasgow resident Peri Ibrahim and
documentarist Doug Aubrey visited Kurdistan. It had been more
than fifteen years since Peri had been to Kurdistan ›a country
which doesn't exist" - and even longer since he'd held a
Kalashnikov. Did his trip result in a last journey back home
or a new call to arms? This will be a work-in-progress
screening and an opportunity to quiz both film-makers about
just how Peri's remarkable story will eventually reach the
screen.
 + SADDAM’S MASS GRAVES (Gorên
Komkujiyên Seddam)
Director: Jano Rosebiani
Kurdistan 2004 / 58m / Kurdish
with English subtitles / 15
Inspired by the examples of Cambodia and South Africa,
where the uncovering of truths about previous atrocities led
to a process of reconciliation, the Iraqi Kurdish filmmaker
Jano Rosebiani returned home just before the outbreak of war
in 2003. His aim was to document the discovery of mass grave
sites, over two hundred of which have been uncovered in the
past year. As well as his use of chemical and biological
weapons, Saddam commonly engaged in the mass burial of
civilians, many of whom were interred while they were still
alive. Rosebiani interviews coalition officials, human rights
representatives, and survivors, setting the record straight
about the collective suffering of Iraqis.
Sat 30 Oct 4.00pm + Peri Ibrahim & Doug
Aubrey
 WAR IS OVER! (Fer bi Dawî Bû!)
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Iran 2003 / 50m / Kurdish with
English subtitles / 15
Immediately after Saddam Hussein's fall, the prize winning
director of A Time for Drunken Horses and Marooned in Iraq
travels to Iraq to arrange screenings of his work. An Iranian
Kurd himself, Bahman Ghobadi is eager to bring cinema back to
people for whom it has ceased to exist. Upon arriving in
Baghdad, however, he discovers that film screenings are a soft
target for terrorist attacks, and that people are afraid to
attend. So he travels to the Kurdish region in the north,
where everybody he encounters attests to the brutality of
Saddam's regime. This impromptu sketchbook, a kind of prelude
to Ghobadi' next feature film TURTLES CAN FLY, reflects the
postwar confusion and it succeeds in capturing an
unforgettable slice of reality.
Sun 24 Oct 4.15pm
Sun 31 Oct 4.30pm
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