Posted by: İlhan Sami Çomak

The story puts İlhan Çomak at the center, even though he is not physically present in the film. It focuses on the 21 years that İlhan spent in prison and his family’s experience of those years without him. The narrative is constructed through the letters İlhan wrote and aims to describe his life, his emotions and longings. The film constructs İlhan’s history through a chronology in the prison but refrains from restricting it only to a “prisoner’s quest for justice”, and rather tells a story of the situations he finds himself in over the years and his emotions and their equivalents in life.

2016-01-01 | tr

American Herro

American Herro is the remarkable story of a young Kurdish girl who comes to America as a refugee from Iraq and lives out the American dream. 30-years later, traveling the globe working for Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Diplomat Herro Mustafa invites her first American friend, filmmaker Kirk Roos, to visit Iraq and retrace her steps to freedom.

2009-02-17 | en

New Life

"Nû Jîn", New Life, with the slogan ' Woman is life. Life is resistance and resistance is Kobanê', depicts the daily life of women guerillas, Elif Kobanê (18), Vîyan Peyman and Arjîn, joining in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) in their battle against ISIS. The documentary relates the ISIS assault of 15 September 2014 and the five-month resistance by the YPJ and People's Defense Units (YPG) through the lens of three women fighter

2015-09-01 | ku

Lonely Trees

Darên bitenê is a fascinating documentary exploring the “dengbej” musical heritage of the singers, poets and storytellers from Northern Syria’s region. Featuring a stunning scenery of poetic landscapes, the film is interlaced with stories of Kurdish and Assyrian songs that narrate the long history of love and suffering of this semi-autonomous region.

2017-01-01 | ku

Sara - My Whole Life Was a Struggle

Documentary on Sakine Cansız (Sara), the Kurdish revolutionary and PKK co-founder killed in Paris in January 2013 by Turkish agents.

2015-01-04 | ku

The Many Lives of Kojin

In a first-person documentary, Diako Yazdani, a political refugee in France, returns to see his family in Iraqi Kurdistan and introduces them to a 23-year-old gay man from Kojin who seeks to exist in a society where he seems unable to find its place. With humor and poetry, the director delivers a moving portrait where the meetings of each other invite to a universal reflection on the difference.

2020-02-12 | ku

Sidik and the Panther

If Sidik manages to spot a leopard in his beloved mountains of Kurdistan, the area can be declared a protected nature reserve. Will that finally bring peace?

2019-04-16 | ku

Shadow of the Kurdish Mountain

Documentary on the Turkish invasion of Afrin in Northern Syria in 2018.

2019-01-01 | ku

From Atatürk to Erdoğan: Building a Nation

Turkey's history has been shaped by two major political figures: Mustafa Kemal (1881-1934), known as Atatürk, the Father of the Turks, founder of the modern state, and the current president Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan, who apparently wants Turkey to regain the political and military pre-eminence it had as an empire under the Ottoman dynasty.

2019-10-22 | fr

The Silent Revolution

The documentary The Silent Revolution explains the revolution involving nearly 3 million kurds living in Syria. With the outbreak of the civil war —in the frame of the called ‘Arab Spring'— the Kurds of Syria have taken advantage of the context to fight for their political and cultural recognition and thus end the repression that started more than 50 years ago.

2013-11-15 | en

Jiyana Rewsenbireki Kurd: Casimê Celîl

Casimê Celîl was born into a Yezidi Kurdish family in 1908, in a village called Kızılkule, located in Digor, Kars. The village and family life, which he longed to remember throughout his life, ends with the massacre they endured in 1918. During his long road to Erivan, Armenia, he lost all his family members. Left all alone, Casim was placed into an orphanage and was forced to change his name. To remember who he was and where he came from, every morning he repeated the mantra “Navê min Casim e, Ez kurê Celîlim, Ez ji gundê Qizilquleyê Dîgorê me, Ez Kurdim, Kurdê Êzîdî me”, which translates to: “My name is Casim, I am the son of Celîl, I come from the village of Kızılkule in Digor, I am a Kurd, and I am Yezidi”. He clings to every piece of his culture he can find, reads, and saves whatever Kurdish literature or art he comes across. As the year’s pass, Casim finds himself with an impressive collection of Kurdish culture and history.

2021-12-10 | ku

The Matchmaker

A unique interview with Tooba Gondal, the woman who groomed and lured scores of Western women to join ISIS. Using social media, she became a deadly matchmaker, recruiting a number of high-profile “jihadi brides” for ISIS militants in Syria: she allegedly helped organise the transporting of three British schoolgirls, including Shamima Begum, to Syria.

2022-08-31 | en

Die PKK in Europa - Freiheitskämpfer oder Terroristen?

2024-08-20 | de

Kurdistan : De Gré Ou De Force

Journey to the heart of the conflict between Kurdistan and the armed group Islamic State. This region that has been neglected and ignored for ages is now one of the key destinations for refugees in the region. This medium-length documentary show the spectator the different groups and communities that are either fighting or residing in the Kurd area.

2015-02-23 | fr

Incomplete Sentences

Aslı Erdoğan, world-renowned author and activist, has fallen into silence after she fled to Germany. Incomplete Sentences is a feature documentary on her literature and life, leading to exile in Frankfurt, after the Turkish regime’s oppression results in her unlawful imprisonment. Now, she struggles in exile while everybody is waiting for her to write again. Right after getting out of prison Aslı starts telling her story to the director, wandering in the streets of Istanbul she recites parts from her books and explains the stories behind. When Aslı goes to Germany to receive the Erich Maria Remarque Award she cannot return; thus her exile, which she likens to a semi-open prison, begins. As her health deteriorates and keeps her from writing, the tragedy in her books becomes her own reality.

2022-06-25 | tr

Meryem

Filmed during the battle of Kobani, this film reveals the women at the heart of the fight against IS. With stoical perseverance and the aid of American airstrikes, these women are leading the fight for freedom.

2017-03-08 | ku

Heval

When a British-born actor abandons his Hollywood career to volunteer to Join the Kurdish YPG to fight ISIS in Syria, many see him as a selfless hero battling America's most insidious enemy. But others think he's a hot-tempered narcissist, staging a publicity stunt to further his career - and when his service ends, neither the UK nor the US welcome him back. Through incisive interviews with the actor, his supporters, his detractors, and top-tier experts - and featuring the actor's own jaw-dropping helmet-cam video of deadly battles with and interrogations of ISIS fighters - Heval gives viewers unprecedented access into a war against evil and one man's controversial role in it.

2021-09-23 | en

Monologue

Sivan Encü, a young Kurdish man, provided for his family by "smuggling" through the Turkish-Iraqi border. When he was murdered in the 2011 Robozik (Roboski) Massacre, the responsibility of family's welfare was taken over by his younger brother Sinan, who lost his life in an unfortunate accident. This is the story of their grief-stricken mother Heyam and her resilience. Alongside Heyam's struggle, the film brings the voices of Robozik elders and notables to the forefront, who have experienced first-hand the social, political and economic dimensions of smuggling, which has been the backbone of survival for the locals for many generations.

2023-09-30 | ku

Öcalan and the Kurdish Question

Kurdistan, partitioned between Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria, could play a major role in a torn Middle East. But who are the Kurds? What influence do they have? Who exactly is Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party? An enlightening investigation by Luis Miranda.

2015-02-13 | fr

Refugee Poetry

The Kurdish Iraqi poet and actor Zeravan Khalil travels with his dog through an Alpine gorge after fleeing from IS war and genocide. As he remembers the abomination, he writes a poem with the title “You drive me mad” in Kurmanji Kurdish. In his home country, Yazidic Kurds are forbidden to work in his profession. Then he eats his apple and wanders through Europe’s middle with more hope.

2016-04-02 | ku