ANF moves to the London Kurdish Film Festival
ANF moves to the London Kurdish Film Festival
The 7th London Kurdish Film Festival opens on Thursday 17 in London. ANF English will follow the festival on a daily basis. Therefore, from today on you would find that the SPECIAL section on the righthand side of the site will be dedicated to the Festival's Diary from today. In this section you could find information about the films shown at the festival, interviews with directors and organisers, photos, trailers and much more.
More info at: photos/headline/photo.jpg
The festival has been running since 2001 and this year’s programme is reacher than ever. Indeed the programme includes 18 feature films, 30 documentaries and 55 short films, 20 of which will be competing in the 3rd Yýlmaz Güney Short Film Competition.
Among the many new things is the venue. The festival this year will take place in the brand new Picturehouse Hackney. This will be the main venue for the festival, with its digital technology to showcase Kurdish films in digital format for the first time. Picturehouse Hackney will be the venue for all screenings between 17-24 November. The final three days of the festival will also take place in a stunning art venue, Westbourne Studios in West London.
This year’s festival includes 18 features films, 16 of which were made by directors of Kurdish origin. 13 of these feature films are premiering in the UK at this festival, while the festival will also host the world premiere of another film, Now Here.
Kurdish director Hiner Saleem has participated in every festival we have held since 2001 and will present his latest feature film If You Die, I will Kill You.
Kurds in Turkey started printing newspapers, first weekly and later daily, to confront the state-controlled disinformation campaign about events taking place. Many of the heinous crimes committed by Turkish state agents against the Kurdish population have been uncovered in this way by brave journalists and Kurdish media outlets. Özgür Gündem (Free Agenda) was the first Kurdish-language daily, opened in 1992. The newspaper was targeted by almost all state institutions and 36 writers, journalists and distributors of the newspaper were killed by the deep state organisation JİTEM. Özgür Gündem was closed down 20 times for a total of more than 400 days and its editors were sentenced to over 140 years in prison. The newspaper was eventually closed down permanently. The film Press, by Sedat Yýlmaz, is about a journalist working in the Amed (Diyarbakýr) office of the Özgür Gündem newspaper. Press will have its UK premiere at the festival. Lost Freedom, by Umur Hozatlý, and Wenda (Missing), a non budget film made by three young directors Abdullah Yaşa, Ali Kemal Çýnar and M.Sait Korkut, are also first features and their stories are related to the atrocities of JİTEM in the 1990s.
Reading through the programme one discovers that five feature films are from South Kurdistan (Iraq), all supported by different cinema branches in the Kurdistan Regional Government. Entries from South Kurdistan include Kick Off by Shawkat Amin Korki, Mandoo by Ebrahim Saeedi, The Night of Judgement by Hussain Sewdin, Qandil Mountains by Taha Karimi and The Quarter of Scarecrows by Hassan Ali.
Two feature films are from East Kurdistan (Iran), They like Nobody and Sunlight behind the Snow.
The programme also includes Exile in Paris by Zirek, Tangled up in Blue by Haider Rashid and Flowers of Kirkuk by Fariborz Kamkari, all made by Europe based Kurdish directors.
The young Kurdish director Shiar Abdi’s first feature film Mes (Walking) hit the headlines in Turkey when it was shown at Antalya’s International Golden Orange Film Festival. Following the screening, nationalist audience members criticized the scene where the main actor slaps a Turkish Army Officer, protesting that such things should never be displayed, even in a film.
The documentary programme this year includes 30 films covering a range of issues. Some of the highlights in the documentary programme are The First Movie by Irish director Mark Cousins, and Ebrahim Saaedi and Zahavi Sanjavi’s multi award winning documentary All My Mothers.
This year will also see the 3rd Short Film Competition named after the legendary Kurdish director Yýlmaz Güney. Competition is limited 20 films.
As the festival's slogan goes, “Sînema bi Kurdî Xweşe! (Cinema in Kurdish is nicer)
More info at: photos/headline/photo.jpg
The festival has been running since 2001 and this year’s programme is reacher than ever. Indeed the programme includes 18 feature films, 30 documentaries and 55 short films, 20 of which will be competing in the 3rd Yýlmaz Güney Short Film Competition.
Among the many new things is the venue. The festival this year will take place in the brand new Picturehouse Hackney. This will be the main venue for the festival, with its digital technology to showcase Kurdish films in digital format for the first time. Picturehouse Hackney will be the venue for all screenings between 17-24 November. The final three days of the festival will also take place in a stunning art venue, Westbourne Studios in West London.
This year’s festival includes 18 features films, 16 of which were made by directors of Kurdish origin. 13 of these feature films are premiering in the UK at this festival, while the festival will also host the world premiere of another film, Now Here.
Kurdish director Hiner Saleem has participated in every festival we have held since 2001 and will present his latest feature film If You Die, I will Kill You.
Kurds in Turkey started printing newspapers, first weekly and later daily, to confront the state-controlled disinformation campaign about events taking place. Many of the heinous crimes committed by Turkish state agents against the Kurdish population have been uncovered in this way by brave journalists and Kurdish media outlets. Özgür Gündem (Free Agenda) was the first Kurdish-language daily, opened in 1992. The newspaper was targeted by almost all state institutions and 36 writers, journalists and distributors of the newspaper were killed by the deep state organisation JİTEM. Özgür Gündem was closed down 20 times for a total of more than 400 days and its editors were sentenced to over 140 years in prison. The newspaper was eventually closed down permanently. The film Press, by Sedat Yýlmaz, is about a journalist working in the Amed (Diyarbakýr) office of the Özgür Gündem newspaper. Press will have its UK premiere at the festival. Lost Freedom, by Umur Hozatlý, and Wenda (Missing), a non budget film made by three young directors Abdullah Yaşa, Ali Kemal Çýnar and M.Sait Korkut, are also first features and their stories are related to the atrocities of JİTEM in the 1990s.
Reading through the programme one discovers that five feature films are from South Kurdistan (Iraq), all supported by different cinema branches in the Kurdistan Regional Government. Entries from South Kurdistan include Kick Off by Shawkat Amin Korki, Mandoo by Ebrahim Saeedi, The Night of Judgement by Hussain Sewdin, Qandil Mountains by Taha Karimi and The Quarter of Scarecrows by Hassan Ali.
Two feature films are from East Kurdistan (Iran), They like Nobody and Sunlight behind the Snow.
The programme also includes Exile in Paris by Zirek, Tangled up in Blue by Haider Rashid and Flowers of Kirkuk by Fariborz Kamkari, all made by Europe based Kurdish directors.
The young Kurdish director Shiar Abdi’s first feature film Mes (Walking) hit the headlines in Turkey when it was shown at Antalya’s International Golden Orange Film Festival. Following the screening, nationalist audience members criticized the scene where the main actor slaps a Turkish Army Officer, protesting that such things should never be displayed, even in a film.
The documentary programme this year includes 30 films covering a range of issues. Some of the highlights in the documentary programme are The First Movie by Irish director Mark Cousins, and Ebrahim Saaedi and Zahavi Sanjavi’s multi award winning documentary All My Mothers.
This year will also see the 3rd Short Film Competition named after the legendary Kurdish director Yýlmaz Güney. Competition is limited 20 films.
As the festival's slogan goes, “Sînema bi Kurdî Xweşe! (Cinema in Kurdish is nicer)
