Kurdish Movie Night: Blackboards (“Takhté siah”)

MV5BMTUwOTM0NzgyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjU1OTQyMQ@@._V1_SY317_CR4,0,214,317_AL_Sunday June 14th 2015, Kurdish Movie Night: Blackboards ( تخته سیاه‎, by Samira Makhmalbaf, Iran, 2000, 88 min.). In Kurdish with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

After the chemical bombing of Halabcheh in Iraq a number of Kurd refugee teachers seek for pupils who are willing to educate around the border as they carry their blackboards like Jesus’ crosses. One of them encounters a group of teenage smugglers and tries to convince them to educate as they carry their heavy backpacks full of smuggled stuff. The other teacher encounters a group of old and tired men, whom after years of migration are going to their own country to die there. But it seems that hunger and insecurity has not left any chance for the education of the generations.

The film focuses on a group of Kurdish refugees after the chemical bombing of Halabja by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War. The screenplay was co-written by Makhmalbaf with her father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The dialogue is entirely in Kurdish and Makhmalbaf describes it as “something between reality and fiction. Smuggling, being homeless, and people’s efforts to survive are all part of reality… the film, as a whole, is a metaphor.” […Lees verder]

Volunteer Network for Rojava reconstruction. Info night and benefit

20150413_Volunteer_Network_Rojava_benefitMonday April 13th 2015, Volunteer Network for Rojava reconstruction. Info night and benefit. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm

Our speaker from the solidarity movement to support Rojava Autonomy will screen some videos and discuss these issues:
1. What is the key conclusion from the Hamburg conference.
2. Why is Rojava special both for Middle East and for us in Europe (various perspectives: anarchist, feminist, communalist, anticapitalist, anticolonialist).
3. What are possible ways to support Rojava reconstruction and development, starting from Kobane Reconstruction Board
4. What is the idea behind Amargi.PL and what is the current status of coordination with Rojava representatives.
5. Short- and mid-term agenda. […Lees verder]

Kurdish movie night: The Songs of My Mothers Land – Marooned in Iraq (Bahman Ghobadi, 2002)

Sunday February 15th 2015, Kurdish Iranian new wave cinema: The Songs of My Mothers Land – Marooned in Iraq. آوازهای سرزمین مادری‌ام‎ (گم‌گشتگی در عراق) by Bahman Ghobadi, 2002, 108 minutes. In Kurdish and Persian with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

Synopsis: In Iran and Iraq’s postwar years, when Iraq bombs its Kurdistan, an old Iranian Kurd singer, accompanied by his musician sons, start searching for his ex-wife Hanareh. Hanareh, a women singer, has gone to Kurdistan in Iraq. The film is the story of the band’s journey, joined with their music. It is the story of a nation that has always been wandering. Being so used to war, they take it as a game and with their music they celebrate life.

Many years ago before our memories were clouded by the moments of heroic bravery at the hangman’s alter which will, for many Arabs, go on to posthumously defining Saddam Hussein, there were innumerable mass graves, gassed victims, orphaned children and menacing jet fighters roaring in the Kurd skies that reminded people of what Saddam stood for.

Bahman Ghobadi’s “Songs of my motherland” (also known as ‘Marooned in Iraq’) is not just a tale of Mirza the legendary Kurd singer but an epic of his people. As Mirza sets out to seek his rebellious ex-wife, Henareh, a belle who has captured the hearts of the people through her voice and her songs, we are introduced to the nuances and shades of the people of the region.

The Kurds are as rugged as their inhospitable landscape locked between the Arab, Turkish and Iranian nationalists who are willing to forcefully suppress anyone that questions their territorial integrity with calls for a Kurdistan. Yet through the eccentric tribal mannerisms of the Kurdish people and their scant regard for authority the movie reveals the trait of natural defiance comfortably adjusted to a cruel fate that the Kurds have had. […Lees verder]

Benefit voku for Kobani II

20150126_Benefit_voku_for_Kobani_IIMonday January 26th 2015, Benefit voku for Kobani II, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm

Dear friends, on Monday 26th of January, voku benefit, informative gathering about Kobani. As many of you may know, Kobani (in Syrian Kurdistan) is sieged by ISIS dijhadistes but the Kurds are defending the city in spite of all kind of shortages. The main population of Kobani left the city and is now living in the neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq. Circumstances in which these people are living are urgent and the winter makes in worse. Come along to have some food and information.

Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchen, every monday and thursday, 19:00 PM, vegan food for 4€ or donation. All benefits go for social & political struggles. No reservation. […Lees verder]

Kobanê is not alone! Solidarity dinner

Thursday November 20th 2014: Kobanê is not alone! Solidarity dinner. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

On September 16, 2014, the Kurdish-dominated, Syrian town of Kobanê was attacked by ISIS. After weeks of fierce resistance, the Kurdish fighters of the YPG/YPJ (People’s/Women’s Defence Forces) continued to hold major parts of the city, while the advance of ISIS finally appeared to have been stopped. During their advance however, ISIS forced more than 200,000 people to flee their homes, pushing them across the border into the South of Turkey. Often they could leave with little more than what they could carry with their own hands and they now have to live under poor conditions in refugee camps. Your donations, in return for a delicious meal, will go directly to the refugees in Suruç, the Turkish border town, where tens of thousands of Syrians have found shelter and are in dire need of simply everything. Thank you for your solidarity! […Lees verder]

ICAD Benefit

Thursday October 30th 2014, ICAD Benefit, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm

Disappearances, a method of state terror. Disappearances are practices of state terror. Specially in countries where exists a big differance between the rich and the poor. There where people resists in an organized way they have to do with all kinds of repression, so as disappearances. More than one million people has been disappeared since the end of the Second World War.

People who are political active, just like cadres of trade unions and farmer organizations, journalists, lawyers, human rights activists are potential victims. Paramilitary gangs and death squads let disappear those people. They can work under the protection of the state apparatus. Countries where “disappearances” are still practice are for example Irak, Syria, Afghanistan, The Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Turkey, Kurdistan, Mexico, Central African Republic, Sudan, Congo. There where exists repression, there will be arise resistance. To let disappear is a manner of state terror to paralize social protest aigainst oppression and exploitation. […Lees verder]

Kurdish movie night – A Time for Drunken Horses (Bahman Ghobadi, 2000)

Sunday August 17th 2014. Kurdish movie night: A Time for Drunken Horses by Bahman Ghobadi, 2000, 85 minutes. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Kurdish Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi grew up during the devastating Iran-Iraq War, which killed several of his relatives. After starting out in photography, he began attracting attention in his twenties from his short documentary films about Kurdish life. After serving as Abbas Kiarostami’s assistant director on The Wind Will Carry Us (Bād Mā-ra- Khāhad Bord, 1997), he expanded the theme of one of his short documentary films, Life in Fog, to make his first feature film, A Time for Drunken Horses (Zamani Barayé Masti Asbha, 2000). The film, about the harsh circumstances of an impoverished Kurdish family near the Iran-Iraq border where the local economy subsists around the dangerous smuggling trade, was an immediate sensation and multi-award winner, including the FIPRESCI critics prize and the Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Kurdish people live mostly in Kurdistan, a mountainous region of the Middle East that covers parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. For them the national boundaries that separate their people are artifacts of past political processes that excluded their participation. But paradoxically these same artificial boundaries that close off free exchange have presented a secondary, though fraught with danger, economic opportunity: smuggling. A Time for Drunken Horses tells the story of an orphaned family trying to survive in these perilous conditions. […Lees verder]

Movie night: Half Moon (Bahman Ghobadi, 2006)

Sunday March 2nd 2014, Movie Night: Half Moon by Bahman Ghobadi (2006, 114′). With English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Mamo, an old renowned Kurdish musician, has begun a journey to Iraq with his sons to perform a concert after the fall of Saddam Hossein. Kako, a middle-aged man and a huge fan of Mamo’s, enthusiastically escorts them in an orange mini bus which he has borrowed from a friend. Mamo gathers his sons one by one from different areas. The last son who joins the team insists on speaking to Mamo in private. He explains to Mamo that the Wise man of the village has predicted that Mamo should not go on the trip because, as the full moon nears, something awful will happen to him. Mamo persists on continuing his journey. He claims that he must continue his trip despite all the obstacles because he was not allowed to perform in Iraq for many years. Mamo intends to take Hesho, a female singer who lives with 1334 other women in exile, as part of his team. But the strength of Hesho’s voice has dwindled along with her self confidence. While crossing the borders, Mamo’s team faces many difficulties as their journey is wrought with adventure and disaster each step of the way. […Lees verder]