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THE HEWLER GLOBE, June 28, 2005-NO. 12,
By Mohammed Amin
Abdulqadir
A new Kurdish Film shot in Southern Kurdistan.
FIRMESKI BEKHAL: A Look Inward, a Message for the
World.
“If the government wants the people happy and wants a good future for Kurdistan they have to take care
of young people,” says Lauand Omar, 24, a young Kurdish Director from Syrian Kurdistan, who is currently working on a
Movie about Kurdish women’s life and sufferings in Kurdish society.
Having degrees in film and TV production
from Canada, America and Mexico, Lauand has recently started to make his first Feature Movie called Firmeski Bekhal (Bekhal’s
Tears) in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, a Movie that as Lauand hopes “can make a positive change or at least cause some discussions
on the Life of women and youth in Kurdish society.”
The Movie is about Bekhal, a young village girl, who is not
allowed by her parents to go to university and once she is allowed to, after a long discussion, she falls in love with a boy,
while she is supposed to get married to her cousin. This is when the problems arise, and her closed-minded cousin, outraged
by a scene of seeing her sitting in a café with a city boy, rapes her and she is consequently forced by her family to marry
the cousin.
The theme of the movie is one that is too common in the eastern patriarchic societies: that of the abuse
of a young girl and her struggle to get a little freedom.
When asked on how optimistic he is about his movie’s
positive impact on society, Lauand replied “the first step to solve a problem is to talk about it and I hope that my
movie will stimulate some discussions among people on the problems I have highlighted in the movie.”
Part of the
movie’s budget is provided by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and there is also some private investment involved.
The
actress who is playing the part of Bekhal is a London-born actress/singer Ozzie Aziz, with her artist name OZZIE.
Ozzie,
26, an upbeat and energetic Florida-based actress and singer, says “we are doing this movie to help women in Iraq, the
society needs to change and it is the time.” Getting Ozzie ready for the movie was not an easy job, since she is not
a Kurdish speaker and the movie is in Kurdish, so she had to learn a language that she had “never heard a language like
that before.” “learning the language was difficult, but I had to forget about the difficulties. It was a challenge
and I like that,” says Ozzie smiling.
Coming to a violence plagued country like Iraq is no easy joke, especially
for a young girl like Ozzie. “when I first told my mother about coming out here she was freaking out and my father exploded,”
says Ozzie laughing. But Ozzie’s determination was even stronger and she decided to come to show the outside world “how
people are here and how beautiful the country is”
The movie will be presented to international Film festivals
and is hoped to be a success.
The Berlinale Film Festival has already shown interest in the Movie.
Last Month the
Kurdish Film “Zero Kilometer”, by Hiner Saleem, a France-based Kurdish Director , got in to the Cannes Film Festival
and last year Bahman Qubadi’s (Iranian Kurdish director) “Turtels Can Fly” won a number of international awards.
Both of these Movies have been about life in Iraqi Kurdistan and also had the support of the KRG.
Despite some
efforts by a young generation of Kurdish directors, there is no single cinematic style that can be called Kurdish Cinema Style.
Fekri
Beroji, 31, assistant director on Firmeski Bekhal living in Erbil, believes that the government is to blame for not having
a productive and active Kurdish cinema.
“the government is only supporting those Directors who came from abroad, the
young native directors have also to be encouraged and supported. Besides, we lack facilities and equipment and so far we have
no big Cinema Hall in a City like Erbil.”
He argues that despite their low age and lack of experience in cinema,
the Kurdish staff working in this movie are “really doing good”.
The Movie is shot on Digital Video at 24
frames per second, which is the speed of Film. “so far we are thinking about editing on Premier Pro and the editing process
will change the Look of it and make it look like its actually shot on Film,” says amir Azimi, 23, an Iranian Canada-based
producer and director who is Firmeski Bekhal’s director of photography. “The Movie is shot with a Panasonic DVX
100A” says Amir.
It will take the Movie three month to be ready and after the shooting is finished by the end
of this month, it will be edited in Canada.
The editing process will be finished in August and in November the movie might
be aired on TV, most probably KTV satellite channel.
Despite its sharp criticism of some weak points of traditional-patriarchic
Kurdish culture, the movie has a far greater message for the World.
“I’m sure a lot of people don’t know
anything about this region, they only know about war and killings and they want to see the Human side, that’s what my
movie is doing, showing them the Human side of the life here”, says Lauand with confidence.
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Hewler Globe article on the Premiere of Bekhal's Tears.
By
Rojen K. Binat
November 2005
Hundreds of people packed a movie theater in Irbil on Thursday at the first showing
of a Kurdish movie filmed in the region.
After three month of shooting and editing, Firmeski bekhal, or Bekhal's Tears
in English, was written and directed by Lauand Omar, a young Syrian Kurd.
After three month of shooting and editing the
low budget movie was shown to an eager audience.
Although it was Lauand's first movie, the Mediya hall was filled.
The
500-seat auditorium was not big enough to accommodate the 700 people that showed up to see the 85 minute long production.
Women
holding their small babies and young girls accompanied by their male relatives came to see the movie as well as prominent
guests whose names were written on their seats. Security added to the mix and the room was completely full.
The impatient
waiting because of a nearly 20-minute delay created a loud hum from the crowd that ended only when the lights were switched
off and the first picture of the movie started on the white screen.
The movie was about a typical Kurdish girl living in
a village.
It focused on the difficulty of balancing between a conservative society and her own desires. In one world,
she is a typical Kurdish who has to accept to marry the man who raped her according to her parent's wishes. In another world,
she struggles for her future. Is Bekhal going to accept the traditional rules and marry the rapist or is she going to be brave
enough to refuse?
The London-born from Cyprus Actress Ozzie Aziz, who is also a singer and has never been in Kurdistan
before, received the most applause from the spectators after the movie and thanked them in the Kurdish language.
"Lauand
did not want to dub, also we knew that I could not speak in perfect Kurdish accent. On the other hand with this movie I wanted
to give the people the message that people can change," said Aziz who sent kisses to the fans when they clapped.
About
the character of Bekhal she said: "At the beginning she is so shy. Later, step by step she gets stronger and trusts herself.
I hope this si going to be a message for the young girls."
Omar, the 26 year old director was also glad because of the
interest of the people.
"I had women come from Suleimania driving all the way of 4 hours just to see the movie and the
people clapped three times during the screening" he said.
"I'm not doing this to neglect the culture of people. I just
want the people to talk about their problems. They have to give the new generation a chance," Omar said.
Omar complained
about the difficulty of finding the actresses for the characters. Replying to the question of why he preferred a London-born
Turkish actress instead of a Kurdish actress Lauand said: "Kurds have to ask the reason themselves; why don\t they let their
sisters, friends or daughters act in a movie?"
One of the spectators who came in to the salon modestly and took a seat
without taking the interest of anyone was Jiwan Hayo, the famous Kurdish singer from Syria. By the end of the move, he was
surrounded by many fans who tried to take pictures with him.
"I enjoyed the movie and it was good to stand on the issue
of women in Kurdistan, "Hajo said.
Although the movie was about the young girls, the spectators were mostly men.
The
free screening had been announced on television.
The Kurdistan Regional Government financially supported part of the movie.
The
characters and the story were from the Kurdistan region of Iraq and that’s were the team worked to shoot the movie.
But
it was a very common story for Kurds in other places.
Ehmed Eli, a Kurdish businessman from turkey said: "I felt as if
all memories of my childhood were turning to live."
"Perhaps the place was different; but the events, the feelings and
the meanings in the people's eyes were the same" Eli said.
"The Mountains never change, but people do" was ferda Cemiloglu's
favorite quote. The business women from Diyarbakir said she was happy to see a foreign woman speaking Kurdish.
A young
girl, who did not want to be identified, criticized the scene where Bekhal gets raped by her cousin.
"What a shame. I covered
my face when I saw the blood," she said.
She also said that she had heard and witnessed such things that happening among
her relatives.
Omar, the director, said he hoped his movie would participate in international film festivals.
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