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Sixth Annual Kurdish Film Festival Comes to London | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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London, Asharq Al-Awsat- The Sixth Kurdish Film Festival is running in London from 20 – 30 November, and in an intensive program is screening films from morning till late at night. This festival was opened on 20 November with the acclaimed “Children of Diyarbakir” which was directed by Miraz Bezar. The Kurdish Film Festival is also showing a large number of documentaries and short films. In addition to this, the Film Festival is holding the Yilmaz Guney Short Film Competition, which is named in honor of the late Kurdish film director Yilmaz Guney, who was considered to be one of the leading lights of Kurdish cinema.

The Kurdish Film Festival is supported and sponsored by a number of official and non-official organizations and institutions, as well as a number of British figures including London Mayor Boris Johnson, as well as the Kurdish Ministry of Culture and Youth.

The opening ceremony of the 6th Kurdish Film Festival was attended by the Middle East Adviser to the US Vice-President, Herro Mustafa, as well as Kurdish Regional Government High Representative to the UK Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman.

“The Children of Diyarbakir” which played at the film festival’s opening ceremony, deals with the story of ten year old Gulistan and her brother Firat who are orphaned after their parents are killed in front of them by Turkish forces.

Another film that is being shown during the Kurdish Film Festival is “After the Downfall” which is directed by Hiner Saleem and which depicts the celebration of Kurdish exiles at the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime. However this joy is cut short by the bitterness and buried resentment at the memories of the tragedies experienced by the Kurdish people at the hands of the former regime.

Other film showing at the Kurdish film festival include Keivan Majidi’s “Heaven is Not the Pace for Terrorists” and Ibo Cordoba’s Hope, as well as “The Land of Legend” which is directed by Rahim Zabihi and “Herman” which is directed by Hussein Hassan.

The festival will also feature documentaries such as “A Day in the North” directed by Juan Hamdo, and “American Herro” by Kirk Roos, and “Cat and Mouse” which is jointly directed by Bijan Zamanpira and Nahid Ghobadi.

The festival will conclude with an evening of special music presented by BBC3 Radio presenter Charlie Gillett, and the announcement of the winner of the Yilmaz Guney Short Film Competition.