A Screening of three Kurdish/Armenian films selected by S. Battal Kurt.

Toprakkale (a trailer)
A film project in development.
Director: S.Battal Kurt
Runtime trailer: 9 min.

Vremana Goda (The Seasons)
Release: 1975
Director: Artavazd Pelechian
Runtime: 28 min.

Kilometre Zero
Release: 2005
Director: Hiner Saleem
Runtime: 96 min.

Runtime total programme: 134 min.

In his work the Kurdish filmmaker S. Battal Kurt deals with questions of cultural difference and identity. For his film Toprakkale, Kurt returned for a whole year to his birthplace Toprakkale in eastern Turkey, to film the habits of the village’s inhabitants. Images of landscapes, rural life and the changing of seasons represent the filmmaker’s research into his own memories and identity. In February’s Cinema Sunset, Kurt will both show the trailer for Toprakkale, as well as show two films by the film directors Artavazd Pelechian and Hiner Saleem.

The film Vremada Goda (The Seasons) by Artavazd Pelechian is one of the most important documentary films made in Armenia. Pelechian is renowned for developing a style of cinematographic perspective known as distance montage and his use of candid camera shots of people engaging in mundane tasks. In Vremada Goda, Pelechian depicts in a light, ironic and intimate way the co-existence of nature and the Armenian people.

Kilometre Zero by Hiner Saleem is a tragicomic road trip set in Iraqi Kurdistan, during the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. It tells the story of a young Kurdish man Ako, who is forced to join the Iraqi army to fight against Iran, whilst dreaming of escaping the country. Out in the frontline, the other Iraqi soldiers abuse him due to his Kurdish background. When Ako is given a mission to escort the coffin of a dead Iraqi soldier back to his family, an unexpected opportunity for escaping arises.