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Kudret Gunes: Films about an Oppressed Nation

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Kudret Gunes: Films about an Oppressed Nation

PostAuthor: Aslan » Mon May 27, 2013 12:42 am

PARIS, France – Kurdish activist and politician Leyla Zena did the unthinkable in 1994: At a time when speaking Kurdish had been illegal in Turkey for decades, she stood up and took the oath for the seat she had won in the Turkish parliament in her outlawed native tongue.

That event had such an impact on Kurdish documentary filmmaker Kudret Gunes that she made a film about the brave Kurdish activist, who endured 10 years in jail for her activities and is now an active politician in Turkey.

Gunes, who studied filmmaking on a French government scholarship at the Sorbonne in Paris, has produced seven documentary films, all on Kurdish issues. And yet, she remains little-known among the Kurds. In Turkey, her films are banned.

The reason, she says, is because of her own Kurdish ethnicity, and the Kurdish themes of her films.

“The Turkish media became an obstacle as they blocked my access to the Kurdish population in Turkey,” she explained.

“Most of my works are about a nation that does not have a state and lives under oppression. There is a system that aims to dissolve that nation. Hence, my works are banned in Turkey,” she said.

All of Gunes’ films – one about Zana’s husband, Mehdi, who also endured 16 years in jail for pro-Kurdish activism -- were financed by French organizations and produced in France.

In 2004 Gunes, 48, participated in the International Mediterranean Film Festival in Montpellier with her movie, Alev, which was selected as one of the films with the best scenarios.

Once, when Turkish reporters asked Gunes if she shared the same thinking as Leyla and Mehdi Zana, she replied: “How would I be able to make a movie about their lives if I could not think like them?”

“For this reason, the Turkish media did not write anything about me. If I were a Turk and if I did not say that I think like Leyla Zana and Mehdi Zana, the Turkish media would have talked very positively about me,” she said.

She said that another time, when Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the former French president, spoke positively about one of her films on the Zana family, the former first lady was harshly criticized by Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper.

So, why did Gunes decide to make a film about the Zana family?

“Leyla Zana’s reading the oath in Kurdish in the Turkish parliament had a big impact on me, because she spoke in a forbidden language in a place filled with racists,” she explained.

That movie, made in 2002 with the help of International French Cinema, won a number of international awards.

In 2004, Gunes produced the film about Mehdi Zana, entitled Mehdi Zana: Seeing Life Differently.

“I had read the book and the writings of Mehdi Zana. I learnt that he lived in prisons for 11 years. My father was tortured in prisons just like them. The life of Mehdi and his friends in prison had affected me a great deal, so I decided to make this movie,” Gunes said.

Gunes said that she faces many difficulties when making a movie, especially financial ones.

The movie about Leyla Zana was produced with the help of the France 5 state-owned TV station, and Guler Films. “At that time, the French policies toward the Kurdish issue was friendly,” Gunes explained.

Gunes praised the recent growth in Kurdish films at international film festivals, but lamented that, because the Kurds themselves do not have a state, Kurdish filmmakers are introduced and identified with the country of their citizenship. Gunes gave Turkish Yilmaz Guney and Iranian Bahman Ghobadi – both of them Kurdish filmmakers -- as examples.

Gunes’ has three future film projects: Alev is the story of a Kurdish girl who gets married in Diyarbakir and migrates to France; Sarirakrn is the story of another Kurdish girl; and Khayalkr is about a Kurdish family from south Kurdistan who become refugees in France.

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Kudret Gunes: Films about an Oppressed Nation

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Re: Kudret Gunes: Films about an Oppressed Nation

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon May 27, 2013 9:39 am

Dear Aslan do you have any links to the films?

PLEASE try to find links with English translations :D
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Re: Kudret Gunes: Films about an Oppressed Nation

PostAuthor: Piling » Mon May 27, 2013 11:34 am



Here is the movie about Mehdi Zana but SORRY with French subtitles :D

You can find also many extracts of Leyla Zana movie, with ENGLISH subtitles.

here is the 1st.

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Re: Kudret Gunes: Films about an Oppressed Nation

PostAuthor: Aslan » Mon May 27, 2013 2:57 pm

Anthea wrote:Dear Aslan do you have any links to the films?

PLEASE try to find links with English translations :D

Lol I don't have no link for a movie or ever heard of any movies from this lady who made the movies lol and I don't read the articles I post I'm pretty much here to share news and get the likes :p lol

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Re: Kudret Gunes: Films about an Oppressed Nation

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon May 27, 2013 8:02 pm

Aslan wrote:Lol I don't have no link for a movie or ever heard of any movies from this lady who made the movies lol and I don't read the articles I post I'm pretty much here to share news and get the likes :p lol

Lazy young man you should read the information you post some of it is very interesting :-B

And PLEASE put a link so that other people are able to follow the article :ymhug:
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Re: Kudret Gunes: Films about an Oppressed Nation

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon May 27, 2013 8:10 pm

Sad shame that Ocalan did not have the strength of character Leyla Zana has :D
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