Premiere of Kurdish war feature cancelled to 'protect stability' in Sulaimani

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- A film based on the real-life resistance of Kurdish youth in Turkey was banned by Sulaimani’s security forces just a day before its Kurdistan premiere.

Ji Bo Azadiye (The End Will be Spectacular), directed by Kurdish filmmaker Ersin Celik was pulled by Sulamani Asayesh (security forces) in order to “protect the security and stability of the city,” according to a statement from Sulaimani’s Salim Cinema, who was due to host the premiere.

Rudaw English contacted Sulaimani’s Asayesh, who declined to comment.

The move has surprised filmmakers and members of the public in a city known for its cultural heritage. The teams were also in contact with Sulaimani’s Director of Culture, who had suggested a larger venue before its December 31 premiere was cancelled.

Set in the Kurdish district of Sur, Diyarbakir in south-east Turkey, the film depicts the real 100-day struggle of Kurdish youth fighting to protect their neighbourhood amid a Turkish government crackdown in 2016. 

The crew was unable to film in Sur, partly because of curfews dating back to the clashes with Turkish forces.  Instead, shooting of the film largely took place in Kobane, northeast Syria - at the time embroiled in conflict, with the Islamic State and Turkish forces close by.

“Sometimes there were Turkish drones flying all over the set…and we had threats that they would bomb the set,” according to co-producer and assistant director Diyar Hesso. 

Turkish censorship of the film also prevented the film from being shot in its original location, a feat that was “completely impossible,” according to Hesso. 

“Our film’s Twitter account is banned in Turkey, the film’s trailer is banned. How would we even film this movie there?”  he added. 

Despite security obstacles, the crew were determined to tell the story of Sur amid an ongoing media blackout over the Kurdish town. 

“The story was meant to be erased..to be kept in the shadows. That’s why we wanted to make this film,” Hesso said. 

Only a small percentage of the cast are professional actors.  Many are fighters, who travelled from the Raqqa frontlines to participate. One crew member was killed in Syria following the Turkish invasion in October, after film production ended, while two of the actors survived the siege of Sur and played themselves in the film.

“The young people there simply defended themselves. It was a grassroots, organic resistance,” Hesso said of the depicted struggle.

Sulaimani’s security forces did not directly contact the film crew with news of the ban. Instead, they contacted the cinema’s manager, who pressed for a justification.

“There was no official statement from the Asayesh. They didn’t even call us, the filmmakers, to inform us,” Hesso said, adding that the manager was told it could not be shown “in any way.”

The film team and cinema staff have criticised the cancellation of the screening, which has been shown abroad but now cannot be seen by a Kurdistan Region audience.

First premiering at Calcutta’s 25th International Film Festival in November, the production has received positive responses from foreign audiences.

“A lot of people cried after watching the film. They came to embrace us and thanked us for making the film and telling this important story,” Hesso said, adding that the Indian festival added an extra screening to accommodate for the film’s popularity.

Despite its global airtime, the film has been arbitrarily banned in Kurdistan, its makers say. 

“The screening of our film was banned by Sulaimani Asayesh without providing a legal reason. Our film is in Kurdish. It was previously screened in India and will be screened in Rotterdam, Holland in January. However, it is banned in Kurdistan,” read a statement published to the film’s Facebook page.

“The security interference is totally wrong, in a city which is considered the intellectual capital of Kurdistan,” Hesso said.

“We will make sure that Kurds in Southern Kurdistan will see this film,” he added, saying that the decision was rejected by the larger cultural community in the city - who are now hoping to reverse the cancellation.

In their statement, Cinema Salim accused the local government of “militarization” of the arts, asking “why a film is screened in the whole world but it is banned in its homeland?”

The cinema highlighted this was the third time a film screening had been banned by the Asayesh in the space of just over a year. The other films centered around members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group fighting for greater cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey. The Turkish state designates the PKK as a terrorist organisation. 

Last January, Kurdish security forces shut down the cinema to prevent a screening of ‘My Whole Life Was a Struggle’, a film about the life of Sakine Cansiz, a founding PKK member assassinated in Paris in 2013.

The film 14 Temmuz (July 14), about Kurds held in Diyarbakir prison going on hunger strike after being abused in jail, was banned from screening by Kurdish authorities in November 2018. 

In lieu of the premiere, the cinema will be hosting a discussion on censorship on 9 January, and have invited local artists, journalists and Sulaimani officials to participate.

The film’s Rojava premiere is set to go ahead as scheduled on 12 January.