London - “A little slice of Kurdistan has come to Britain”, announced the BBC presenter recently. The Kurdish journalist Jiyar Gol reported for BBC on the Kurdish film festival taking place from 20 until 30th November in London. He says there is a new Kurdish cinema coming up.
The Kurdish Film Festival was launched 2001 with the support of Kurdish organizations. With more than 100 movies and high quality movies, that have won prizes, the festival aims to be a platform for both Kurdish and non-Kurdish producers and film makers. The festival has inspired other countries to organize similar festivals.
But many of the movie directors couldn’t come to London, because their visa’s were rejected. Jiyar Gol says the Kurdish film makers bring the past to live. Most of the films were hard hitting, with stories about prisons, torture, human rights violations and chemical attacks.
Bayan Abdul Rahman, representative of the Kurdish government in the UK hopes that Kurds will be able to pass the stage of telling these stories of violence and cruelty to the world. “We want to tell the world what happened to us.” She personally wishes, that new movies will tell positive stories, without forgetting the past, “because there is a great deal of hope in Kurdistan”.
© Rudaw
