In 2012, in the wake of the Syrian civil war in northern Syria, the Democratic Federation of Rojava was founded by Kurdish, Assyrian, Arab and Turkmen armed groups, political parties and civil society formations – as a democratic autonomous region whose social model is based on the core elements of gender justice, ecology and grassroots democracy. This utopian attempt to build a new society has been accompanied from its inception by the artistic medium of film. A screening of films from the region, accompanied by discussions about art & revolution.
Wir zeigen folgende Filme im Gorki-Lichtsaal:
Mein Paradies
Regie:Ekrem Heydo (Dokumentarfilm) | 26. Oktober / 18 Uhr
Until a few years ago, the city of Serê Kaniyê was a region in northern Syria shaped by peaceful ethnic and religious diversity. Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, the city has been divided into regions based on religion. A class photo as an artefact of peaceful coexistence takes Ekrem Heydo from Germany back to his native city to recount his classmates’ tragic stories. This film is the artistic documentation of a journey in search of the point when friends became enemies.
If the catastrophic war in Syria has also brought something good with it, then it’s probably the radically transformed role
of women in the Middle East, more precisely in Kurdish Rojava. At the outbreak of the Arab Spring, Jiyan initially joins the protests against Assad, later she defends the region against the Islamic State as a guerrilla fighter. She fights not only for an independent Rojava, but first and foremost for the independence of women.
IN CURDISH, WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES
Çîroka Bajarên Wêrankirî / Stories of Destroyed Cities
Regie:Şêro Hindê (Spielfilm) | 27. Oktober / 19 Uhr
Wherever the Islamic State terrorist organization raged, their atrocities cut deep wounds into the walls and bodies of the survivors in the rubble. Stories of Destroyed Cities is a film that moves between fiction and eyewitness accounts to document devastating events. Three cities in Rojava, three stories about the inhumanity and banality of modern war, but also about the hope that a coming future can blossom among the ruins.
IN TURKISH AND KURDISH WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES
All Films: free entry!
The Color of Women
By Hito Steyerl and Rojava Film Commune
An interview with YPJ Commanders Dilovan Kobani, Nirvana, Ruken, and Zerin Read interview
