Turkey: Screening of Kurdish films starts in Van on 5 August

Films by Kurdish directors will be screened in Turkey's southeastern Kurdish-majority city of Van starting from 5 August.

The event, dedicated to Saturday Mothers (rights group named after sit-ins every Saturday over the issue of enforced disappearances), will include alongside screenings also interviews with filmmakers.

Films by Aram Dildar, Rezan Yesilbas (both Turkish born) and Zanyar Muhammadineko (Iranian born) will be screened in the first week of the event.

On August 12, Shahram Alidi's Black Horse Memories (Biranina hespa res) will be screened and an interview with the director will take place. Iranian born director's 2015 film tells the story of a group of young people trying to teach Kurdish in Turkey as they defy a ban on the teaching of the language and print text books in underground schools and distribute them.

The following week, Ebrahim Saeedi's Tired (Mandoo) will be screened, and the next Mano Khalil's Neighbors (Ciran).

Iranian born Saeedi's 2010 film focuses on 1979 upheavals of Iranian Kurds following the Iranian Islamic revolution, which resulted in many taking refuge in Iraq, where they were placed in camps under appalling living conditions.

Syrian born Kurdish-Swiss director Khalil's 2021 film Neighbors tells of a childhood, which, between dictatorship and dark drama in Syria, also has its light moments.

Soleen Yusef's House Without a Roof (Haus ohne Dach) will follow. Yusef, born in Iraqi Kurdistan, fled the country with her family in 1996 when she was nine because of political circumstances, to resettle in Germany. Her 2016 film is about the journey of three siblings born in Iraqi Kurdistan and raised in Germany trying to fulfill their mother's last wish to be buried in her home village beside her husband who got killed in war.

The event is organized by Chalak Events.