Gava Şitil Mezin Dibin (When the Seedlings Grow) by Rêger Azad Kaya, produced by the Rojava Film Commune, was awarded the Best International Feature Film Actor at the 8th Vasteras and Nordic Film Festival in Sweden in the category of feature film.

The film tells the story of a yoghurt seller from Kobanê and his two children who run into Hemûd, a boy who is looking for his home. The day they spend together ends up full of both adventure and misfortune, and showcases the changing dynamics in the region after the revolution, when Kurdish-led forces pushed the fundamentalist Islamic State (ISIS) out.

For Ahmed Arif Hecona, who plays Hüseyin in the film and won the best actor award, it was his first leading role and his second ever engagement in a film production. The amateur actor is actually a trained iron smith and runs his own workshop. Director Rêger Azad Kaya discovered him by chance in Kobanê and was immediately enthusiastic about him.

Girin Kasırga attended the award ceremony in Stockholm on behalf of the film crew.

The film was awarded the Best Fiction Feature prize at the Montecine Montevideo World Film Festival in Uruguay, and the Best International Feature Film Award at the 10th International Human Rights Film Festival in Colombia. It was selected as the Best Film among 1246 films at the 20th SKIP CITY International D-Cinema Festival in Japan.

The film is expected to be screened at Kurdish film festivals next month.

The director of the film, Rêger Azad Kaya, was born in the city of Ağrı in Northern Kurdistan in 1992. He studied at Akdeniz University, Department of Radio-Television and Cinema in Antalya.

He made traveling documentaries for various Kurdish TV channels. Then he moved to North East Syria and worked as a cinematographer and editor of short films. He acted in the film Ji Bo Azadiyê and shot a behind-the-camera documentary.

He worked as an actor and casting director in the film Kobanê. Then he shot his own feature film, Gava Şitil Mezin Dibin, in a collective manner.