On Monday, a delegation from Germany has traveled to northern Syria to hold talks and gather information about the current situation. One of the delegation members is filmmaker and producer Peter Ott, whose political thriller "The Milan Protocol" has been in the cinema since the beginning of the year. The film was shot at original locations in the border area between southern Kurdistan and northern Syria.

Ott spoke to ANF on his first impressions and further plans.

You have arrived in Rojava. What are your first impressions?

Of course, one week is too little to do more than superficial experiences. We have recently been to Rojava and, as someone who knows the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, I have a very open willingness to talk to the people we met. The project of local self-government, gender equality, the construction of a grassroots democratic model of society is immediately fascinating. On the one hand, because it is carried out under conditions of war and on the other, because it is constantly corrected with impressive patience and self-reflection. The yoke of corruption that dominates the entire Middle East seems to have been thrown off here.

What motivated you to travel?

I am interested in the news of a historical project that is not only a model for the Middle East, but also for overcoming the contradictions in which capitalism repeatedly implicates us and from which it will not release us. As a leftist cultural worker, I consider it a duty to look at this attempt. So I am very glad that I have the opportunity to do so now, even if only for a week.

Will you be able to visit the refugees from Afrin in Sehba?

That's not out yet. Shehba is located in the territory of the Assad regime and it is still open whether we will be able to go there. So far, it does not look like it.

Do you have any idea what you will do with your findings on this journey after your return to Germany?

We will do events first. I also see my own stay here as a research trip for further projects. In addition, it is about learning from the tenacity of the project here and raising the question of a concrete and sustainable left project to creative artists or intellectuals in Germany. Also for that reason there are things to learn from Rojava.