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The 1st London Kurdish Film Festival
9 - 15 November 2001
The First London Kurdish Film festival is a wonderful and rare opportunity to see the diverse world of Kurdish film. The films chosen touch on the situation of every part of Kurdistan and the lives of Kurds in exile. There will also be workshops and discussions with some of the filmmakers.
A complete list of films and times is available from the cinema on 020 7241 9410
The films include:
The Herd & The Road (Yol) - Yilmaz Güney (restored prints)
A Time for Drunken Horses - Bahman Ghobadi
Blackboards - Samira Makhmalbaf
Gas Attack - Kenny Glenaan
The Photograph - Kazim Öz
Journey to the Sun - Yesim Ustaoglu
Roadblocks (Kleisti dromi) - Stavros Ioannou (Greek and Kurdish)
A Handful of Grass - Roland Suso Richter
The Boy who Stopped Talking - Ben Sombogaart
Good Kurds Bad Kurds - Kevin McKiernan
Gas Attack
'Gas Attack' deals with the fate of a Kurdish father and daughter who are asylum seekers in Glasgow. Together they face the indifference of the State, racism and intolerance from a local population which has its own social problems and exploitation from within the immigrant community itself. Suddenly refugees start becoming ill in increasing numbers - is it all linked and what is the cause?
This film interweaves fact and fiction in the style of a documentary to produce a work which is horrifying real. The film was made before the sad death of Firsat Yildiz in Glasgow, a frightening example of life imitating art. The newspaper Scotland on Sunday said "Vivid, stark and topical, Gas Attack's focus on the plight of asylum seekers makes it one of the most compelling films of the Festival".
The film stars Sherko Zen-Aloush (from Western Kurdistan) and Benae Hassan (from Southern Kurdistan). There are many Kurdish supporting actors, including Sana Sadollah who is outstanding as a grieving wife. It is being shown on Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday 8/10/2001 and at film festivals in London and Hamburg later in the year.
'Roadblocks' - A Greek Film about Kurdish Refugees.
The Edinburgh Festival also showed a film by Greek documentary film-maker Stavros Ioannou called Klisti Dromi - Roadblocks. It focusses on the fate of a pair of Kurdish refugee brothers who flee to Greece after their village is bombed. Ayat searches frantically for his brother Ahmed amongst the refugee community in Athens. He tries to reach Italy, where he thinks he can start life afresh, but runs into great danger dealing with smugglers and border officials. This film centres on the dangers of refugees attempting to break into Fortress Europe and was filmed completely at night.
A Time for Drunken Horses.
In all, Edinburgh this month showed three films starring the Kurds and touching different aspects of the Kurdish question. The last was a film not at the festival, but on general release in the UK called 'A Time for Drunken Horses'. This film is from Iranian Kurdistan and shows the life of a family of orphaned children. One of the children takes on dangerous missions smuggling goods across the Iran-Iraq border to support the rest of the family, in particular his younger brother who is congenitally disabled and needs an operation. In an attempt to get the money for his operation, his sister gets married in the hope that her husband will pay for it. The name of the film refers to the custom of giving horses alcohol before they ascend the precipitous mountains so that they are not scared.