FEATURE FILMS

ASYLUM (Penaberî)

Director: Nigel Roffe-Barker
Cast: Nabil Elouahabi, Dai Bradley, Fuman Dar, Geoff Leesley
Britain 2002 / 97m / 15

Mahmoud and his friends, Rezghar and Saman, all young Kurdish refugees, have fled political persecution and inevitable imprisonment in northern Iraq by smuggling themselves into England, where they register for asylum and try to establish new lives. Their future is threatened when their genuine claims get bound up in red tape and lost in the system. Saman is detained as an illegal alien and Rezghar evades capture by taking refuge in a Catholic church where Mahmoud joins him. They claim sanctuary and the priest decides to champion their cause. Escalating media and police attention lead to a dramatic conclusion demonstrating the limits of human compassion and the cruelties of the system.

Fri 22 Oct 1.45pm
Wed 3 Nov 9.00pm

BEFORE DAWN (Berî Roj Hile)

Director: Anwar Sindi
Cast: Nezar Mama, Birgul Balmer, Parisa Yakobi
Denmark 2003 / 87m / Kurdish with English subtitles / 15

Before Dawn follows the life of a young man and his sister through their adult lives under the rule of Saddam and his policy of Kurdish genocide. Events - Anfal, the 1988 Halabja Chemical attack and other atrocities including the control of everyday life - are seen from the level of personal experience, to create a moving and thought-provoking portrait that is more immediate than any documentary.

Thur 28 Oct 7.00pm
Mon 1 Nov 2.30pm

BLACK TAPE: A TEHRAN DIARY (Teyba Refl: Rojaneyeke Tehranê)

Director: Fariborz Kamkari
Cast: Mehdi Asadi, Parviz Moasesi, Shilan Rahmani
Iran 2002 / 83m / Farsi & Kurdish with English subtitles / 18

A young Kurdish woman in Tehran receives a video camera for her birthday and proceeds to record, often surreptitiously, the heavily circumscribed and increasingly disturbing domestic life she leads with her older, controlling husband. The film gradually reveals their marriage to be a chilling allegory for the utter powerlessness of the dispossessed Kurdish population. First-time filmmaker Fariborz Kamkari shows only what the video camera records and creates a harrowing account of psychic and physical confinement, complete with hints of sexual sadism and a touch of Gothic horror. Not for the fainthearted, BLACK TAPE is a scorching howl of protest.

Mon 25 Oct 9.00pm
Mon 1 Nov 4.30pm

COLOURFUL DREAMS (Xewnên Rengîn)

Director: Mano Khalil
Cast: Hasa H. Inan, David Imhoof, Max Rüdlinger, Sandra Forrer, Rezan Cetin
Switzerland 2003 / 60m / Kurdish with English subtitles / 15

COLOURFUL DREAMS could be the story of every artist who has great dreams - dreams which are difficult to translate into reality and often fade like spring blossom blown away in the wind. It could also be the story of a people who, having lost their homeland, can no longer find peace of mind.

+ SILENCE OF THE SLUGS (Bêdengiya Kûrman)

Director:Sârdâr Hamarash
France /13m / French with English subtitles / PG

Sun 24 Oct 8.45pm + Mano Khalil
Fri 29 Oct 9.00pm
Thur 4 Nov 2.15pm

DELICATE PAIN (Jana Zirav)

Director: M.Sait Alpaslan
Cast: Devran Öncel, M.Sait Alpaslan
Turkey 2004 / 62m / Kurdish with Turkish subtitles / 15

This film is about Semse Alak who was stoned to death by her family after she was raped. The film is about honour killings and strongly criticises traditions.

+ A COUNTRY, A TIME AND A MAN (Welat, Demek, Mirovek)

Director: Huseyin Karabey
Turkey 2004 / 42m / Turkish with English subtitles / 15

Fri 29 Oct 6.45pm

EXORCISM (Rawe Jinoke)

Director: Mahdi Omed
Cast: Tariq Akreyi, Omar Chawsheen, Hawjin Sardar, Haval Hamajwan
Produced by Cultural Ministry in Arbil (Cinema Section)
Kurdistan 1993 / 80m / Kurdish with English subtitles / 15

In 1991, Saddam launched a major attack on the Kurdish cities in response to the Kurdish uprising, and thousands of Kurds fled to the mountains and the borders in fear of another chemical attack. This was the last major battle between Saddam's regime and the Kurds. The film focuses on an elderly man, Qudret Agha, who loses his daughter, Maryam, in the flight and enlists the help of a young man, Jwamer to find her. Jwamer extracts a promise from Qudret Agha, that if they if find Maryam, he will claim her as his wife. But after a long search, they find Maryam in one of the refugee camps, by which time she already has a lover, so she refuses to marry Jwamer, and that's when the troubles starts.

+ THE CALLIGRAPHER

Director: Jess Brownrigg
Britain 2004 / 10m / in English / 15

Tue 26 Oct 4.45pm
Fri 29 Oct 11.15pm

FOLLOW THE FEATHER! (Perre Dima So!)

Director: Nuray Sahin
Cast: Pegah Ferydoni, Neza Selbuz, Dilek Serindag
Germany 2004 / 80m German & Kurdish-Zazaki with English subtitles / 15

Young Helin is brought up by her father in Turkey. The night before he dies her father gives Helin a white feather to guide her and asks her to search for her mother and sister who went to Germany a long time ago. With the white feather she starts her journey to Germany and finds her mother and her sister in Berlin. Seeing each other again means that the past can be cleared and the search for a common future can begin. But Helin's journey is not yet finished. The feather appears in her dreams and takes her to strange places where an unknown young man appears again and again...

+ THE LAST CARTRIDGE (Kaseta Clawi)

Director: Nuray Sahin
Germany 2000 / 7m / German & Turkish with English subtitles / 15

Sun 24 Oct 6.15pm + Nuray Sahin & Pegah Ferydoni
Sat 30 Oct 6.30pm + Nuray Sahin & Pegah Ferydoni

Tue 2 Nov 2.15pm
Thur 4 Nov 6.30pm

JOURNEY BY NIGHT (Rewitiya bi Seve)

Director: Kenan Kilic
Cast: Mehmet Tanik, Hakki Kiliç, Abdulkerim Sari, Neriman Akkale
Austria 2002 / 65m / Turkish with English subtitles / 18

A bar in Vienna, whose foreign-born regulars live on the edge of society. The majority are not Austrian citizens, are unemployed and have no financial resources. Their lives hover between legality and illegality, between surviving and wasting away. For a small group of native Turks, this existence represents a transitory phase which will eventually lead to a better life. One of them, Cemo, is unable to carry on in the face of this contradiction between hope and reality.

+ WE WILL MEET LALE (Em Dê Lale Bibînin)

Director: Dilek Çolak
Turkey / 16m / Turkish with English subtitles / 15

Thur 28 Oct 4.45pm
Mon 1 Nov 9.00pm

KHOLA PIZA

Director: Jaleel Zangana
Cast: Mustafa Ahmad, Zhyan Ibrahim,
Barzan Qala Khalluz, Nawal Saeed
Kurdistan 1998 / 80m / Kurdish with English subtitles / 15

This film explores the life of Khola Piza who was a farmer in Kurdistan and is still a legendary figure today. When shortly after the Second World War, government forces came to his village and started making life difficult for the villagers, he chose to resist, and left for the mountains with a band of followers. His fight against the government of Iraq continued until his death in 1952.

Fri 22 Oct 4.00pm
Sun 31 Oct 6.30pm + Jaleel Zangana & Mustafa Ahmad

LAST MINUTE (Deqîqeya Dawiyê)

Director: Marina Caba Rall
Cast: Petra Kleinert, Ercan Durmaz, Katharina Schmalenberg, Roberto Guerra
Germany 2004 / 83m / German with English subtitles / 15

In a broom cupboard at a German airport two cleaning ladies discover a stranger in handcuffs. He tells them about an unjustified deportation and about the torture which awaits him in his native country. Is he telling the truth? Or could he be a criminal, a terrorist who's trying to escape from the airport and his guards? The two women are confronted with either having to believe or disbelieve him. And if he is telling the truth, what should they do?

Thur 28 Oct 9.00PM
Wed 3 Nov 4.45PM

A LITTLE BIT OF FREEDOM (Hinek Azadî)

Director: Yüksel Yavuz
Cast: Cagdas Bozkurt, Leroy Delmar, Nazmi Kirik, Necmettin Cobanoglu, Susanna Rozkosny, Sunay Girisken
Germany 2002 / 98m / German & Turkish with English subtitles / 15

Set in Hamburg's immigrant district of Altona, Yüksel Yavuz's second feature film (after APRIL CHILDREN) tells the story of a friendship between two young men. Baran is a Kurd whose relatives have helped him to come to Germany after the death of his parents. He survives by running errands for a Turkish fast-food restaurant, which take him from the finest apartments to the lowest clip joints, but his application for asylum is rejected just before his sixteenth birthday. When Baran encounters Chernor, an illegal and stateless immigrant, his life gains impetus. But while Chernor tries to finance his future by drug dealing, Baran's past catches up with him.

Sat 23 Oct 9.00pm
Tue 26 Oct 7.00pm

MAMA RISHA

Director: Jaleel Zangana
Cast: Jaheed Dillpak, Abdul Hama Jwan, Marina Shamdinani, Jaleel Zangana
Kurdistan 2003 / 82m / Kurdish with no subtitles / 15

Based on a real-life Kurdish warrior, this film explores one man's fight against an oppressive regime. Mama Rasha is a legendary figure in Kurdistan and his exploits are still talked about today. This action packed film explores his fight against the Iraqi regime and its policies.

Wed 27 Oct 6.30pm + Jaleel Zangana
Fri 29 Oct 4.45pm

THE RIVERSIDE (Qeraxa Çem)

Director: Ali-Reza Amini
Cast: Mohammad Javaheri, Shadi Varvaei
Iran 2004 / 80m / Farsi with English subtitles / 15

Whilst travelling through no man's land near the Iran-Iraq border a Kurdish bride steps on a landmine. She remains frozen mid-step whilst her new husband runs to get help. Her terrifying yet absurd plight is the focus for the appearance of a series of other Kurdish characters each escaping the vicissitudes of political and social turmoil. Each is a survivor in their own way, and although sensitive to her plight, they are preoccupied with their own problems and personal safety. Set during the US-led invasion of Iraq, Amini's film shows not only the aftermath of Coalition attacks, but also the devastating long term effects of Saddam Hussein's policy toward the Kurds. "A compelling, tense and visually striking portrait of a beleaguered people". (London Film Festival programme)

Tue 26 Oct 9.15pm
Tue 2 Nov 6.30pm

TALL MIRROR (Eyna Bejnê)

Director: Halil Uysal
Cast: Sabriye fke, Hevi Sanoger, Tofan Silan, Sadik Cudi
Kurdistan 2002 / 100m / Kurdish with English subtitles / 15

An exploration of the daily life of the Kurdish guerillas through the eyes of a child called Sakine. The mountain guerillas attempt to bring a mirror from a nearby village as a birthday present for Sakine. The ensuing journey with four guerillas is a journey of discovery for Sakine and she makes friends with them. A mirror held up to the life in the mountains.

Fri 22 Oct 6.00pm
Sun 31 Oct 9.00pm
Thur 4 Nov 4.15pm

TEARS IN THE COLD (Rondikê Sermayê)

Director: Azizollah Hamidnezhad
Cast: Parsa Piruzfar, Golshifteh Farahani, Ali Ruintan, Nooroddin Gudarzi, Kamran Iran
Iran 2003 / 100m / Farsi with English subtitles / 15

An Iranian soldier risks his life to befriend a Kurdish shepherdess who is not what she seems. Set on the Iranian border, TEARS IN THE COLD makes the snow-choked expanse of mountain a symbolic setting for a relationship forbidden by a harsh political reality. The soldier, an ace defuser of land mines, defies his superiors to extend the hand of friendship to a woman he believes to be as lonely as he is. In reality she is a rebel assassin with an assignment to kill him. A crisis of conscience comes to a head when a blizzard traps the two together in a cave.

Sat 30 Oct 9.00pm
Wed 3 Nov 6.45pm

TODAY – TOMORROW (Îro – Sibe)

Director: Sarbast Rasol
Cast: Vlademir Maisuradze, Inna Karolyova, Mstojan Mamed, Ruben Muradian
Russia 2002 / 73m / Kurdish & Russian with English subtitles/15

The story of a young Kurdish family's desperate attempt to travel to Europe through Russia and the strain it brings on the couple's relationship. The family wait in Russia for a forged passport in order to travel to Europe but will the people smugglers keep their word?

Mon 25 Oct 6.45pm + Sarbast Rasol
Fri 29 Oct 2.45pm

TURTLES CAN FLY (Kusî Jî Dikarin Bifirin)

Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Cast: Avaz Latif, Soran Ebrahim, Hirsh Feyssal, Saddam Hossein Feysal, Abdol Rahman Karim
Iraq-Iran 2004 / 95m / Kurdish with English subtitles / 15

Bahman Ghobadi's third feature film after A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES and MAROONED IN IRAQ is set in a village in Iraqi Kurdistan, on the border between Iran and Turkey, where the villagers desperately seek a satellite dish antenna in order to keep updated on the impending attack of the Americans in Iraq. Coming from another village with his younger sister and her child, a mutilated boy has a foreboding: the war is getting closer and closer... TURTLES CAN FLY won the main prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September. "Ghobadi displays a complete command of his art as he shifts between - and even blends - wrenching tragedy and amusing comedy." (Variety)

Thur 4 Nov 8.45 Closing Gala

VODKA LEMON (Vodka Leymûn)

Director: Hiner Saleem
Cast: Romen Avinian, Lala Sarkissian, Ivan Franek
France-Italy-Switzerland-Armenia 2003 / 90m / Armenian, Kurdish with English subtitles / PG

"Hiner Saleem's gentle tragi-comedy tells of Hamo, an ageing widower, who finds love in, of all places, a cemetery. But it's also the story of his tiny Kurdish village – a remote, snowbound outpost where the real and the surreal agreeably co-exist. With his wife in the ground, his only hope rests in an adult son who has immigrated to France. Saleem surrounds his protagonists with a colourful gallery of eccentrics. The real star, though, is the rugged, mountainous landscape: a winter wonderland that will have you blinking in chilly awe. The marvel is that Saleem finds human empathy and alcohol-fuelled bonhomie flourishing in such a forbidding and melancholy wilderness.” (BBCi Films)

Fri 22 Oct 8.30pm Opening Gala + Hiner Saleem
Sat 23 Oct 6.45pm + Hiner Saleem
Mon 25 Oct 4.45pm
Tue 26 Oct 1.15pm (Parents & Babies screening)
Wed 27 Oct 9.00

WHIRLPOOL (Gejaw)

Director: Hawrey Mustafa
Cast: Shwan Atof, Tavga Mohamed, Shadman Aziz
Kurdistan / 80m / Kurdish with no subtitles / 15

Based on a true event that took place in February 1997 as retold by one of the survivors. The perilous journey of Kurdish emigrants on a ship going to Europe.

Wed 27 Oct 2.30pm
Wed 3 Nov 2.45pm