AKFF: Shorts 3
Amsterdam Koerdisch Film Festival 2023
A selection of Kurdish shorts.
A Picture for Calmness – 8 min.
Director: Saroyan Ismael
Three young men are trying to create a fake asylum case through (Kolbari) peasantry in order to obtain asylum outside Kurdistan (Iraq).
On the Roads of Freedom – 35 min.
Directors: Maria Ghalvazi & Shiva Ghalvazi
On The Roads of Freedom is the story of Maria, a thirty-year-old journalist and activist, who meets two Kurdish and Iranian women rights activists from two generations before her, in Norway and Sweden and tries to find answers to her questions regarding the struggles of Kurdish and Iranian women. This is the story of Maria, a journalist and activist, who has been threatened and arrested for her activities in line with women’s rights. She is a master’s student in the media and has lived in Norway as a political refugee since 2018. Maria’s search for insight into the Kurdish and Iranian women’s movement leads her to meet two women’s rights activists from earlier generations, trying to answer her questions regarding Kurdish and Iranian women’s struggle against oppression. Asieh Amini, a journalist, poet and board member at Norwegian-PEN, is a women’s rights activist who fought against the death penalty and stoning of women and minors in Iran. Golrokh Ghobadi, a writer and one of the first groups of female Komala peshmerga, Golrokh had fought for freedom and equality in Kurdistan before the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and witnessed the struggles and developments before and after the Islamic Revolution in Kurdistan. Thus, On The Roads Of Freedom offers a multi-generational perspective on the Iranian women’s movement, as Iran stands on the brink of a revolution led by women.
The Witching Hour – 11 min.
Director: Hawar Rehimi
It’s midnight and Jiyar is driving in the local route to the Sawmill factory where he works, when his wife video-calls him to come home because she’s afraid of wolves howling outside and can’t make it through the nights alone anymore. But if Jiyar does not make it to his work he might lose his job.
Celebration – 14 min.
Director: Navid Zare
A peddler father, after incurring a lot of debt, decides to hold his last celebration of life with his wife and two children. But two cats stop them.
Birds Fly Home – 9 min.
Director: Jiyan Düyü
Where cows disappear, birds fly back. In the Kurdish Mountains, the stories of Hikmet and Abdurrahman come together. While playing, the children from Hani generate a frivolity that lightens the weight of the landscape.