Events List

MESP 2012 Middle Eastern Film Festival
Monday 6 February – Monday 20 February 2012

Event: Middle Eastern Film Festival: Kurdish Cinema.

Organisers and Partners: A partnership between the Middle East Festival, MESP, and the Filmhouse, supported by the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh Persian Society, Goethe-Institut Glasgow, Screen Academy Scotland, Scottish Documentary Institute, the Agent Ria:registeredinart, the Norwegian Film Institute, and Stills Gallery, and with funding support from Creative Scotland.

This project is organised by Neill Walker (on behalf of MESP), James McKenzie, and Filmhouse, and is managed by Neill Walker (on behalf of the Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace, EICSP, Scottish Charity, SC038996).

Venue: Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh. EH3 9BZ.

Event Description: The purpose of the Festival is to provide a focus for the study and promotion of Middle Eastern cinema. The geographic area covered by the Festival broadly covers that outlined in Oliver Leahman’s ‘Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film,’ which includes Central Asia, North Africa, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Following on from the retrospective on Iranian cinema in 2009, and Egyptian cinema in 2010, and Turkish cinema in 2011, this year’s retrospective will be on the highly regarded Kurdish cinema.

This year’s Middle Eastern Film Festival boasts the strongest line-up of films yet, with new releases by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Jafar Panahi and Mohammed Rassoulof appearing alongside the work of rising filmmakers such as Morteza Farshbaf, Hesham Issawi and Lelyla Bouzid, and a succinct retrospective on Kurdish cinema which, despite the groundbreaking efforts of Yilmaz Guney in the seventies, only really came to prominence over the last decade and half. This retrospective takes as its starting point Yesim Ustalogu’s poetic masterpiece, Journey to the Sun, a film that announced the arrival of a new Kurdish cinema, then takes its own journey through a remarkable selection of works that places Kurdish filmmakers within the context of Middle Eastern cinema and the broader diaspora. At its best Kurdish cinema not only evokes the sufferings and travails of its people, but also contains moments of great lyricism, humour and humanism, and it is these qualities that have struck such a resonant chord with moviegoers and critics alike.

Complementing the Kurdish season will be a day workshop, facilitated by Mustafu Gundogdu, one of the pre-eminent authorities on Kurdish cinema, a personal appearance and masterclass by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Yuksel Yavuz, and a talk and screening with Hakan Akçura.

For the first time the festival will also be showcasing visual artists with a connection to the region, in a programme of works curated in association with the internet channel The Agent Ria:registeredinart (www.youtube.com/registeredinart). Featured artists will be Hakan Akcura and Erkan Ozgen.

Contact and Booking: 0131 228 2688, www.filmhousecinema.com 


TICKET DEALS

See any three (or more) films in this season and get 15% off. See any six (or more) films in this season and get 25% off. See any nine (or more) films in this season and get 35% off. These packages are available online, in person and on the phone, on both full price and concession price tickets. Tickets must all be bought at the same time.


Almanya
Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland

Mon 6 Feb at 6.15pm
Yasemin Samdereli • Germany 2011 • 1h37m • Digital projection
German and Turkish with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Vedat Erincin, Fahri Ogün Yardim, Aylin Tezel, Lilay Huser,
Demet Gül.

A charming cross-cultural comedy about three generations of German-Turks, Almanya is the story of a Turkish family living in Germany who set off together for their homeland. Moving across the past and present, the journey is full of memories, arguments and reconciliations, until the family trip takes an unexpected turn...


Journey to the Sun
Günese yolculuk - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Tue 7 Feb at 6.15pm
Yesim Ustaoglu • Turkey/Netherlands/Germany 1999 • 1h44m
35mm • Turkish, Kurdish and Dutch with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Nazmî Kirik, Newroz Baz, Mizgin Kapazan, Ara Güler, Lucia
Marano.

Turkish Mehmet and Kurdish Berzan are two lonely souls trying to keep their heads above water. Mehmet comes from the west of Turkey and Berzan’s village is far away in the southeast, near the Iraqi border. They meet in the threatening urban environment of Istanbul, where Mehmet is working for the water department and Berzan is selling music cassettes on the street. Mehmet’s hopes for a new life come to an abrupt end when he is mistakenly arrested as a terrorist suspect when a package containing a gun is found next to him on the bus.


Hejar
Büyük adam küçük ask - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Wed 8 Feb at 8.30pm
Handan Ipekci • Turkey/Greece/Hungary 2001 • 2h • 35mm
Turkish and Kurdish with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Sükran Güngör, Dilan Erçetin, Füsun Demirel, Yildiz Kenter,
Ismail Hakki Sen.

This controversial fi lm was unanimously nominated to represent Turkey at the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category. At the fi lm’s heart is the relationship between a nationalist, authoritarian judge and a five-year old Kurdish orphan. The judge, who is the girl’s neighbour, takes her in following a botched police raid that results in the death of her guardian. Hejar was the winner of several awards, including Best Picture, at Turkey’s prestigious Golden Orange Film Festival (2001).


Mourning
Soog

Thu 9 Feb at 8.30pm
Morteza Farshbaf • Iran 2011 • 1h25m • Digital projection
Persian with English subtitles • 12A
Cast: Kiomars Giti, Sharareh Pasha, Amir Hossein Maleki, Sahar
Dolatshahi, Peyman Maadi.

A dark comedy chronicling a road trip through Iran’s countryside to attend the funeral of a young boy’s parents, who are killed in a tragic accident following an argument in the middle of the night. The now orphan is escorted by his two deaf relatives, who choose to keep the death of his parents a secret. Mourning is a successfully unconventional exploration of the road trip as a vehicle for grieving.


Fotograf - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Fri 10 Feb at 6.30pm
Kazim Oz • Turkey • 2001 • 1h6m • 35mm
Turkish and Kurdish with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Feyyaz Duman, Nazmî Kirik, Zulfi ye Dolu, Muhlis Asan,
Mehmet Ali Oz.

An imaginatively shot and revealing fi lm following the stories of two young men travelling to Turkish Kurdistan by bus. They sit next to each other, each of them hiding the reason for his journey from the other. Who are they? Where are they going? And why?

PLUS SHORTS

Kurdish Lessons 1-3 Hakan Akçura • 2010 • 3m


DOUBLE BILL

Transit Cities

Sat 11 Feb at 1.15pm
Mohammed Hushki • Jordan • 2010 • 1h10m • Digibeta
Arabic with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Saba Mubarak, Mohammad Al-Qabbani, Shafi ka Al Til, Ashraf
Farah, Manal Seihmeimat.

Divorced after 14 years of marriage in the US, a 36-yearold Jordanian woman returns to Amman but fi nds her hometown, family and friends much changed. Hoping to rebuild her former life, Laila arrives at her parents’ home without warning – and without mentioning her divorce. She fi nds her once active, intellectual father is now a broken man who practically refuses to talk to her, her mother and sister are wearing hijab and frown upon her Western clothing, and her MA degree doesn’t seem to mean anything to her former university when she goes to apply for a job. The last straw comes when she fi nds she can’t even do as she pleases in her own rented apartment. An atmospheric and affecting drama about cultural estrangement.

PLUS

Grandma, a Thousand Times

Mahmoud Kaabour • United Arab Emirates/Qatar/Lebanon
2010 • 50m • Digibeta • Arabic with English subtitles • 12A
Documentary

Teta Fatima is the 83-year old matriarch of the Kaabour family and the sharp-witted queen bee of an old Beiruti quarter. With great intimacy, this playful magic-realist film documents her larger-than-life character, as she struggles to cope with the silence of her once-buzzing house and imagines what awaits her beyond death.


Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando
Gitmek: Benim Marlon ve Brandom - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Sat 11 Feb at 8.30pm
Huseyin Karabey • Turkey 2008 • 1h33m • Digibeta
English, Kurdish and Turkish with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Ayca Damgaci, Hama Ali Kahn, Nesrin Cevadzade, Omer
Sahin, Cengiz Bozkurt.

Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando follows the long-distance love affair between Ayca, an actress from Turkey, and Hama Ali, an actor from Iraq. When Americans invade Iraq and the country is engulfed in with hellish violence, Ayca decides to go on a dangerous and seemingly futile journey to Iraq, in search of her lover.


Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da

Sun 12 Feb at 1.00pm
Nuri Bilge Ceylan • Turkey/Bosnia and Herzegovina 2011
2h30m • 35mm • Turkish with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel, Ahmet
Mümtaz Taylan, Firat Tanis.

A haunting journey into the heart of darkness and into the heart of Anatolian identity. A murder has been committed and a man has confessed; all that remains is for him to lead police to the body, but it soon becomes clear that the killer can’t locate the place where he left his victim. Unsurprisingly, master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cannes prize-winner is no ordinary police investigation thriller. Nothing signifi cant may seem to happen but things are not always as they appear to be. People, emotions and events develop in unexpected ways until the grand design of this subtle, rich and audacious fi lm comes gradually into focus.


Jiyan - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Sun 12 Feb at 6.15pm
Jano Rosebiani • Iraq/USA 2002 • 1h39m
35mm • Kurdish with English subtitles
12A – Contains moderately distressing scenes
Cast: Kurdo Galali, Pirshang Berzinji, Choman Hawrami, Derya Qadir.

Five years after the chemical and biological bombing of Halabja, Diyari, a Kurdish-American architect returns to his homeland, intending to build an orphanage in what is left of the town. He fi nds himself in a community where daily burials of the dead are a regular occurrence, even years after the attack. In the midst of this situation he discovers two children, cousins Jiyan and Sherko, who prove that it is still possible to salvage something from this destruction.


Min Dit: The Children of Diyarbakir - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Mon 13 Feb at 6.10pm
Miraz Bezar • Germany/Turkey • 2009 • 1h42m • 35mm
Kurdish and Turkish with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Senay Orak, Muhammed Al, Hakan Karsak, Suzan Ilir.

Ten-year-old Gulistan and her younger brother Firat live happily with their parents in Diyarbakir, the heart of Turkish Kurdistan. When they are suddenly orphaned, Gulistan, Firat and their infant sister are cared for their young, politically active aunt Yekbun, who is trying to arrange for her and the children to move to Sweden. Before she is able to complete the process, however, Yekbun disappears without a trace, and the children are left alone.

PLUS SHORT

Breath Erkan Ozgen • Turkey 2008 • 6m


Turtles Can Fly
Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Tue 14 Feb at 6.10pm
Bahman Ghobadi • Iran/Iraq/France 2004 • 1h37m
35mm Kurdish with English subtitles
15 – Contains implied sexual assault and war trauma
Cast: Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Feysal, Hiresh
Feysal Rahman, Abdol Rahman Karim.

The fi rst film to be made in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Turtles Can Fly is set in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border just before the US invasion in spring 2003. Director Bahman Ghobadi concentrates on a handful of orphaned children and their efforts to survive the appalling conditions. Using an entirely non-professional cast, Ghobadi vividly immerses the viewer in the nightmarish realities of daily existence in this makeshift community.


Close Up Kurdistan - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Thu 16 Feb at 8.00pm
Yüksel Yavuz • Germany 2007 • 1h44m • Digibeta
Kurdish, Turkish and German with English subtitles • 15
Documentary

Reversing the route of refugees fl eeing confl ict and insecurity in Kurdistan, Yüksel Yavuz documents his journey from the relative safety of Europe back though Turkey to a refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan. Through the often harrowing stories of those he meets along the way – including Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ismail Besikci, imprisoned for 17 years as a dissident intellectual – Yavuz’s film gives Western audiences an invaluable perspective on some of the most pressing political issues facing the Kurds.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Yüksel Yavuz.


Cairo Exit

Fri 17 Feb at 6.10pm
Hesham Issawi • Egypt • 2010 • 1h40m • Digibeta
Arabic with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Mohamed Ramadan, Maryhan, Ahmed Bidder, Safaa Galal.

A powerful account of life in Cairo, this raw drama about a pair of star-crossed lovers shines a powerful spotlight upon the social and cultural taboos that riddle the city’s diverse population. Amal is an 18-year-old Coptic girl, living in the slums of Cairo. Her Muslim boyfriend Tarek is planning to leave Egypt on an illegal boat-crossing to Italy. When Amal tells Tarek she is pregnant, he gives her an ultimatum – leave the country with him, or have an abortion. Despite her love for Tarek, Amal rejects both choices, but when she is fired
from her job her already precarious future looks bleak.

PLUS SHORT

Soubresauts Leyla Bouzid • Tunisia/France 2011 • 22m


Hisham Zaman: 3 Films - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Sat 18 Feb at 1.45pm
1h25m • 35mm • Kurdish and Norwegian with English subtitles • 15
Three fi lms by Kurdish-Norwegian director Hisham Zaman.

Bawke Hisham Zaman • Norway 2006 • 15m

A father is forced to choose between two evils to provide for his son.

Winterland Hisham Zaman • Norway 2007 • 52m

A love story about two Kurds in the north of Norway.

Other Ones (De andre) Hisham Zaman • Norway 2009 • 18m

A man is driving through a winter landscape. All of a sudden, his car hits someone, and he flees the scene in panic.


Goodbye

Sat 18 Feb at 8.20pm
Mohammad Rasoulof • Iran • 2011 • 1h40m • Digital projection
Persian with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Leyla Zareh, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy, Shahab Hosseini.

A young Iranian lawyer faces callous bureacratic indifference and frightening governmental harassment as she attempts to maintain her professional life while seeking an exit visa. An overtly critical and thus political – and courageous – film, it is also beautifully artistic, with a sense of rhythm, framing, lighting, metaphor and symbol that is both subtle and communicative. Lacking offi cial state approval, it was smuggled out of Iran for its Cannes Film Festival appearance last year, where it won Best Director in its section. After the events of the Green Revolution, the director was arrested along with Jafar Panahi, and both now face prison sentences.

PLUS SHORT

Into Thin Air Mohammadreza Farzad • Iran 2010 • 26m


This Is Not a Film + SDI shorts

Sun 19 Feb at 1.00pm
1h45m • 15

This Is Not A Film will be followed by two short films dealing with the Middle East, from graduates of the Scottish Documentary Institute, and a discussion, lead by Finlay Pretsell, on the importance of film in documenting contemporary issues within the region.

This Is Not a Film

Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb • Iran • 2010 • 1h15m
Format TBC • Persian with English subtitles • 12A • Documentary

Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s mesmerising documentary depicts a day in Panahi’s life as he appeals his conviction for ‘propaganda against the system’ – which carries with it a jail sentence and a twenty year ban from writing or directing. This Is not a Film is not only a philosophical reflection on the nature of making art; it is also an urgent and personal defence of the artist. When Panahi’s day ends on the threshold of the outside world, we see just what’s at stake.

PLUS SHORTS

Road to Damascus Roxana Vilk • 2010 • 2m

Yemen Uprising Sara Ishaq • 2012 • 28m


Kick Off - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Sun 19 Feb at 6.10pm
Shawkat Amin Korki • Iraq/Iran/Japan 2009 • 1h21m
35mm • Kurdish with English subtitles • 12A
Cast: Atug Asu, Hamed Diyar, Hamajaga Hilin, Anwar Sako.

In Iraq, where thousands of families have seen their homes destroyed or confiscated, a ruined football stadium is the only refuge many can fi nd. Hundreds of Kurds, Turks, Assyrians and Arabs live side by side in makeshift quarters inside the vast concrete structure. Aso is a young man who is bringing up his younger brother Diyar, who has lost a leg in a mine blast, under these frightful conditions. Along with his friend Sako, he organises a friendly match with the help of Kurdish TV. Comical and poignant, Kick Off conveys the reality of life in Iraq better than any news report.


Red Heart
Rødt hjerte - FOCUS ON KURDISH CINEMA

Mon 20 Feb at 8.20pm
Halkawt Mustafa • Norway/Iraq 2011 • 1h17m
Digital projection • Kurdish with English subtitles • 15
Cast: Shahen Jamal, Soran Ibrahim, Ali Ahmed.

Shirin and Soran, two Kurdish teenagers, are secretly sweethearts. When Shirin’s mother dies, her father decides to remarry, but his new wife demands that Shirin has to marry her son. To be together, Soran and Shirin have no other choice but to escape. Life on the run is not easy – Soran is sent to prison and Shirin is left alone, in a society where a young woman without her father or her husband becomes fair game.

 

The Agent Ria:registeredinart

Visual artists’ moving image works at the 2012 Middle Eastern Film Festival.

The Agent Ria:registeredinart, is an internet channel for contemporary artists video.  Launched in March 2010, it provides a constant point of access to current and experimental work by visual artists exploring various methods and approaches to screen-based practices. New work by different artists is regularly uploaded to the channel, adding to the hosted works.

As part of Edinburgh’s 2012 Middle Eastern Film Festival, The Agent Ria:registeredinart will show selected works, online and in-cinema, by two visual artists exploring Kurdish themes, Hakan Akçura (Sweden) and Erkan Ozgen (Turkey). The curated artists’ screenings respond to the Film Festival programme and areas of discussion, while providing an opportunity for the audience to experience makers’ differing methods of engagement with moving image.

The Agent Ria:registeredinart has become a resource, with artists’ videos selected for shows in the UK (Tate Modern, London) and USA (DCCP, Detroit), as well as curating off-line screenings, most recently as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2011. The channel also aims to encourage conversation around new areas of public art and documentation, as well as engaging a wider audience less familiar with the visual arts.

Agent Ria:registeredinart: www.youtube.com/registeredinart