My Sweet Pepper Land

Director: Hiner Saleem
Stars: Korkmaz Arslan, Golshifteh Farahani, Suat Usta

2013, 1h 40minutes

Baran, a Kurdish independence war hero, is now sheriff in Erbil, the capital city. No longer feeling useful in this society now at peace, he thinks about quitting the police force, but instead agrees to be stationed in a small valley, at the very borders of Iran, Turkey, and Iraq. It is a lawless territory, right at the heart of illegal drug, medication and alcohol trafficking. Having arrived in the small village, he refuses to bow down to Aga Azzi, the seriously corrupt tribal chief and absolute ruler of the area. Baran meets Govend, the village school teacher, who is also rejected by the villagers. Like Baran, she represents another law, that of the young and autonomous Kurdish state. Govend is all the more vulnerable as she is not a married woman.

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Bekas, Up and Away

Director: Karzan Kader
Stars: Zamand Taha, Sarwar Fazil, Diya Mariwan

2012, 1h 37min

Iraq in the early 1990 was a devastating land to survive in. When we think of Iraq, the first thing that tends to pop into our minds is the war and Saddam Hussein. But there is another side too – it is perhaps the most notorious country in the world and it goes by the name Kurdistan. Welcome to BEKAS. This is a story about two homeless brothers (Zana, 7) and (Dana, 10) who live on the edge of survival. In the beginning of the story they catch a glimpse of Superman through a hole in the wall at the local cinema. Zana and Dana decide that they want to go to America and live with Superman. Once they get there he can solve all their problems, make their lives easy and punish everyone that has been mean to them. Zana, the younger brother, starts to make a list of all people he is going to tell Superman to punish. On top of the list is Saddam Hussein. Dana on the other hand makes a concrete plan for what they need to get there; money, passports, transportation and a way to get across the boarder. Unfortunately they have neither of those. But in spite of everything they decide to follow the dream.

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Before Your Eyes

Director: Miraz Bezar
Stars: Senay Orak, Muhammed Al, Hakan Karsak

2010, 1h 42min

Ten-year old Gulistan and her younger brother Firat live happily with their parents in Diyarbakir, the heart of Turkish Kurdistan. Tragedy strikes when their mother and father are shot down by paramilitary gunmen before their eyes. Traumatised and orphaned, Gulistan, Firat and their infant sister are placed in the care of their young, politically-active aunt Yekbun who soon disappears without a trace.

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The Storm

Director: Kazim Öz
Stars: Cahit Gök, Havin Funda Saç, Mehmet Selim Akgul

2008, 2h 36min

A true-to-life epic of Kurdish students excitedly anticipating social revolution.

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Half Moon

Director: Bahman Ghobani
Stars: Ismail Ghaffari, Allah-Morad Rashtian, Farzin Sabooni

2006, 1h 48minutes

Mamo, an old and legendary Kurdish musician living in Iran, plans to give one final concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. After seven months of trying to get a permit and rounding up his ten sons, he sets out for the long and troublesome journey in a derelict bus, denying a recurring vision of his own death at half moon. Halfway the party halts at a small village to pick up female singer Hesho, which will only add to the difficulty of the undertaking, as it is forbidden for Iranian women to sing in public, let alone in the company of men. But Mamo is determined to carry through, if not for the gullible antics of the bus driver.

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Turtles Can Fly

Director: Bahman Ghobani
Stars: Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Feysal

2004, 1h 38minutes

On the Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border, the boy Satellite is the leader of the kids. He commands them to clear and collect American undetonated minefields in the fields to sell them in the street market and he installs antennae for the villagers. He goes with the local leader to buy a parabolic antenna to learn the news about the eminent American invasion but nobody speaks English and Satellite that knows a couple of words is assigned to translate the Fox News. When the orphans Agrin and her armless brother Hengov and the blind toddler Riga come from Halabcheh to the camp, Satellite falls in an unrequited love for Egrin. But the girl is traumatized by a cruel raid in her home, when her parents were murdered and she was raped. She wants to leave Riga behind and travel with her brother Hengov to another place, but he does not agree with her intention.

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Vodka Lemon

Director: Hiner Saleem
Stars: Romen Avinian, Lala Sarkissian, Ivan Franek

2003, 1h 30minutes

In a remote, isolated Yazidi Kurdish village in post-Soviet Armenia, Hamo, a widower with a pitiful pension and three worthless sons, travels daily to his wife’s grave. There he meets the lovely Nina, who is communing with her late husband. The two are penniless–she works in a local bar that is about to close down, while he has been forced to start selling his meagre possessions. All seems hopelessly bleak, yet when Hamo begins to court Nina, their unexpected love revitalizes them.

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Jiyan

Director: Jano Rosebiani
Stars: Kurdi Galali, Pirshang Berzinji, Choman Hawrami

2003, 1h 42minutes

Jiyan is the first and only narrative film made about the chemical attack on Halabja. The film takes place five years after the attack when ex-patriot, Diyari, returns from the USA to build an orphanage. He meets a colorful bunch of townspeople who, despite their bruises, struggle to rebuild their town and along with it, their dreams for a better future.

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Passeurs de rêves (Beyond Our Dreams)

Director: Hiner Saleem
Stars: Olivier Sitruk, Ruzan Mesropyan, Romen Avinian

2000, 1h 40min

Hiner Saleem’s second feature tracks a young refugee couple’s flight from Kurdistan to hopeful sanctuary in Paris, braving travails comic and tragic on their long, serpentine path. Already struggling toward an uncertain destination at the outset, childhood sweethearts Dolovan and Zara are first seen huffing across the frozen Caucasian 
Mountains. Not by choice: Saying “We have no country,” Dolovan is resigned to the necessity of leaving their lifelong village in Mesopotamia, where ethnic strife has drawn a vicious line between local Kurds and their suddenly intolerant neighbours. Zara is more reluctant, and their odyssey starts very badly as her elderly parents, lagging behind, are lost to the elements.” (Dennis Harvey, Variety)

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