ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The second Kurdish Film Festival kicked off in Istanbul on Thursday following years of suspension due to coronavirus-related restrictions. The event began with a classic film on Yazidis by an Armenian director.
The first edition of the festival was held in Istanbul in 2019 but the organisers failed to hold it the following years due to the spread of coronavirus and related restrictions. The second edition began on Thursday in the same city, lasting until March 29.
The festival is screening 27 Kurdish films, short films, documentaries which mostly focus on women, nature and human rights. The event began with the screening of Yazidi Kurds, a silent film produced by Armenian director Amasi Martirosyan in 1933. It was the first time this film was screened in Turkey, which is about the establishment of a collective farm in a Kurdish village in Soviet Union.
The festival hall was packed with people, with many wearing Kurdish traditional clothes. Almost all members of the festival committee were wearing these clothes.
Turkish authorities banned Kurds from wearing their traditional clothing during the first day of Kurdish New Year, Newroz, in Diyarbakir (Amed) on March 21.
The festival was organised by Mesopotamia Cultural Centre.
The films have been produced in Kurdish areas of Iran and Turkey and the Kurdistan Region.
Duyemîn Festîvala Fîlmên Kurdî ya Stenbolê #FFKS duh (24ê Adarê) bi merasîma vekirinê dest pê kir.
— Ömer Sönmez (@OmerBextiyar) March 25, 2022
Di çarçoveya festîvala ku ji aliyê @mzptmyasinema @mkm_ncm ve tê da, wê bi giştî 27 fîlm bên nîşandan.
Bernameya destpêkê gelekî baş bû. Fîlma ewil jî hakeza. pic.twitter.com/0KcphIs1wq
Co-chairs and lawmakers of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) also participated in the festival.
“Kurdish art is growing every day. Today, I participated in the inauguration of Kurdish Film Festival in Istanbul. Very interesting films will be screened,” the co-chair Pervin Buldan said in a tweet on Thursday.
Kurds have been deprived of mother tongue education in Turkey since the establishment of the state. They have even been banned from speaking the language in all settings. However, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has provided limited freedom to Kurdish speakers in the last decade following a short-lived ceasefire with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2013.
