In 2012, in the wake of the Syrian civil war in northern Syria, the Democratic Federation of Rojava emerged. Its main objective was not the establishment of a Kurdish state in Syria, but rather a society based on gender equality, protecting nature and grassroots democracy. This utopian attempt was accompanied from the beginning by the artistic medium of film. A screening of films from the region, accompanied by discussions about art & revolution. The second film screening of Rojava will show the film Jiyan's story by Ahmet Haluk Ünal.
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.
After the film screening: Artist talk with Ahmet Haluk Ünal.
