Kurdish cinema

The first film of the Kurdish cinema, Zare was shot in Armenia and directed by Hamo Beknazarian in 1926, but only in the 2000s Kurdish cinema began to rise.

One of the founding father of Kurdish cinema, a figure that is admired by Kurdish Filmmakers today is Yilmaz Güney, despite all the restriction that was force upon him by the Turkish Government, Guney managed to portray the richness of Kurdish cultures in his films, such as Suru and Yol.^[1] Over the years Kurdish cinema has symbolized mainly the sufferings of the Kurdish people in the Middle East.

Bahman Ghobadi, Iranian/Kurdish film director in San Sebastian (Spain)

Kurdish cinema mainly evokes the poverty and sufferings of the Kurdish people in the Middle East. Yilmaz Güney, Bahman Qubadi, Mano Khalil, Shero Rauf, Jano Rosebiani, Havi ibrahim, Hisham Zaman, Sahim Omar Kalifa and Yüksel Yavuz are among the better known Kurdish directors. Some Kurdish Filmmakers live and work outside Kurdistan, such as Karzan Kardozi,^[2] Hiner Saleem.^[3] The following is a list of some better known Kurdish films that are critically acclaimed have the highest rating^[4] on IMDB are:

• My Sweet Pepper Land, 2013
• David & Layla, 2006
• Turtles Can Fly, 2004
• Vodka Lemon, 2004
• Jiyan, 2002
• Marooned in Iraq, 2002
• A Time for Drunken Horses, 2000
• The Wall, 1983
• Yol, 1982
• Zare, 1927

New Kurdish Documentary Movement

In the past decade, a new style of New Kurdish Documentary Movement has taken shape in all four part of Kurdistan. Kurdish filmmakers uses documentary films as a tool to educate mainly Western viewers, especially showing their films in Film Festivals and over Social Networking sites to bring attention to the past historical and current evens that has and is taking place in Kurdistan,^[5] many of these documentaries are shot in cinema Cinéma vérité styles, with small budget and crews, notable films include:

• Bakur (Çayan Demirel & Ertugrul Mavioglu, 2015)^[6]
• 1,001 Apples (Taha Karimi, 2013)^[7]

The film Banaz a Love Story, directed and produced by Deeyah Khan is about Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old Kurdish woman from Mitcham, south London, who was killed in 2006, in a murder orchestrated by her father, uncle and cousins.^[8] It won the 2013 Emmy award for Best International Current Affairs Film.^[9]

References