Kurdish film director protests against France

2014-04-01 11:41:22

NEWS CENTER (DİHA) - Kurdish film director Kazım Öz protested at the French government's attitude regarding the murders in Paris last year of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez by refusing to accept an award at this year's 36th Cinéma du Réel Film Festival awards ceremony on Saturday. Öz's film "He Bû Tune Bû" (Once Upon a Time) was one of 11 documentaries deemed worthy of an award amongst 40 films shown.

The Cinéma du Réel documentary film festival showed 40 full length, mid-length and short films at the Pompidou Centre representing 26 countries between 20 and 30 March 2014. Kazım Öz's new film, ‘He Bû Tune Bû’ portrays the journey and adventures of a poor, large Kurdish family going from Batman to Ankara in search of seasonal work. The film also shows the process of how a lettuce goes from being a seed to ending up on the dinner table, detailing the story, toil and struggle behind all the fruit and vegetables we eat.

On 29 March directors of 11 of the films shown were deemed worthy of an award. When Kurdish director Kazım Öz was invited by the French festival organisers to receive his award he responded by going onto the podium and rejecting the award on account of the French government's stance on the murders of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez.

Öz said he had the utmost respect for art, but that he could not accept an award from the place where three Kurdish women were massacred. The festival organisers said they respected his decision.

(nt)