The first Armenian and Kurdish film in cinematic history, “Zare”, will be screened at Turkey’s most prestigious independent film festival this weekend in Istanbul.
The film screening will be accompanied by Kurdish harpist Tara Jaff, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
Directed by legendary Armenian director Hamo Beknazarian, “Zare” was produced on 35mm black-and-white film in 1926 and is set in an Armenian Yezidi village. “Zare” was the first Kurdish film, according to young Kurdish director Müjde Arslan, who directed “Ölüm Elbisesi: Kumalık” (A Fatal Dress: Polygamy).
“After this film, Kurdish cinema remained silent until 1991. Kurds have become the subject of social films made by realistic Kurdish directors in Turkish cinema but the word ‘Kurd’ has not been highlighted,” Arslan recently said. “Here, the expression ‘cinema is the mirror of a society’ is corroborated because both Kurdish people and the word ‘Kurd’ were banned in [Turkish] cinema, just like in [Turkish] society.”
