12th edition of Hamburg Kurdish Film Festival kicks off

The 12th edition of the Hamburg Kurdish Film Festival opened on Thursday night with South Kurdistan Director Şhawkat Amin Korki’s film Ezmun (The Exam).

The opening started with a concert by Soprano Pervin Çakar and well-known wind instrument master Etan Tekin. The film festival this year is held with the slogan “Four parts, one cinema” and is dedicated to Director Rahim Zahibi, who died in Rojhilat Kurdistan in 2018, and to Director Hakkar Abdulkadir, who died in Duhok in the past months due to corona.

After the music concert, Yaser Irmak, a member of the festival organizing committee, made the opening speech. He said: “This year’s festival is organised with the slogan ‘Four parts, one cinema’ and aims to bring together new films by Kurdish directors. Preparations for this festival have been going on for about a year. Despite the fact that 130 valuable applications were made to us for the festival, we will be able to screen only 41. We wish we could show them all.”

Irmak finished his speech by thanking all his friends who contributed to the festival.

Ezmun (The exam) is a work focusing on corruption in the education system in South Kurdistan.

Answering questions from the audience after the end of the movie, Shawkat Amin Korki pointed out that many families in South Kurdistan still suffer from corruption in the education system and said that the film is based on a true story.

Various panels will be held as part of the Hamburg Kurdish Film Festival events.

The first one will be held at the Mut Theater at 4 pm today and is titled “Kurdish Cinema in Four Parts”. The speakers of the panel, which will be moderated by Ferhan Sterk, are Shawkat Amin Korki, Ibrahim Shahidi, Hashim Aydemir and Ekrem Heydo.

Archaeologist Mesut Alp will attend the talk titled “Historical Artefacts Destroyed in Kurdistan”. Veysi Atay and Mesut Alp will be the speakers of the panel titled “The loss of identity of the environment and history in Kurdistan”.

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