Jury Statement on 3rd Yılmaz Güney Short Film Competition

Introduction

It’s taken us a long while to decide on what merits a good short film – never mind what merits the best short film in this competition.

The variety and scope of the shortlist was amazing, and it was difficult to decide not only between the different directors creative skill and a writer’s vision – but certainly also difficult to decide between the absolutely crucial subject matters that lie in the heart of most of the films.

It was difficult to decide whether looking back to understand the past is more important than to engage with the present, or to look forward even.

As a short film jury, we felt it was our duty to award the films which made us think, smile and believe that there is a way forward not only for Kurdistan but certainly also for Kurdish cinema. A strong Kurdish cinema can help shape the future for Kurdistan. So we have awarded films which deserve to win – but also awarded directors who need the recognition and encouragement to continue developing their talent and to keep working in a notoriously difficult and under-funded business. Kurdistan needs these directors.

Special Commendation

We have no country, no money, no cinema, all we have is stories. After long deliberations, we decided to create a Special Commendation – and to mention a film, which although it isn’t perfect, is dealing with ongoing suppression of women and girls in various parts of Kurdistan – in a brave and abstract fashion. The worst that can happen to anyone is to not be believed in, and this film left us wondering who really are the mentally disturbed in society…. Congratulations to Grill (Sarbast Raza Garmiany, South Kurdistan)

Special Jury Prize:

Jury Special Prize – to acknowledge a stunning, flawless film we decided to give the Jury’s Special Prize to a highly accomplished film – and the film is The Sound of Rain (Jalal Saedpanah, East Kurdistan )

3rd Prize:

The Third prize in the Yilmaz Guney Short Film Competition, we have decided to give to a film which deals with the traumas of conflict and the impact it has not only on children but everyone experiencing war. ‘I am Saddam’ says the little Spiderman hero – and when his sister sulks, he continues ‘you can be Saddam too’. A fine balance between humour and horror made it easy for us to award Land of the Heroes the third prize. (Sahim Omar Khalifa, South Kurdistan and Belgium)

2nd Prize:

The second prize goes to a film which intrigued us profoundly. We felt the directors had taken some creatively bold choices, choosing as they did to retell contemporary history with a mesmerising allegory of a lost generation. It is not because of the arrests that have been carried out in Turkey during the past few days, but this film should make us all ask why some people think prison can be justified at the expense of education, so congratulations to Five Stones (Kenan Tekes & Riza Barut, North Kurdistan).

1st Prize:

The 1st Prize we have decided to give to a film which combines imminent storytelling with good characterisation and humanising – as well as humourising! – a universal subject (access to education is a human right). We are impressed with the skill at play in this very young director’s work, and are delighted to award the Yılmaz Güney’s 1st Prize to Pomegranate is the Fruit of Paradise (Taimar Ghaderi, East Kurdistan).

JURY MEMBERS FOR THE 3rd YILMAZ GÜNEY SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Please click here to view the films in this competition

Azad Nasseh Ali ( Azad Kerkuki)

was born in 1964 in Kirkuk in Southern
Kurdistan. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Sulaymaniyah, studying theatre in 1981. In 1984, he moved to Denmark where he produced several works in theatre and music. In 1988, he moved to Moscow to study cinema and he obtained a masters degree from the VGIK Film School. Azad has made numerous short films, documen- taries and TV movies. His most recent work is a series of historical documen- taries on the Kurdish Liberation move- ment in Iraqi Kurdistan from 1914 – 1992.

Marie Olesen

Is an award-winning film & TV pro- ducer and factual journalist with a background in radio production. Marie set up Autonomi in 2002, a Glasgow-based production company with two business partners. Olesen has filmed across the world and produced current affairs, dramas and documen- taries for international audiences. She produced Kurdi (LKFF, 2009) and has a work-in-progress called Minefield. Both films feature filming in Kurdistan and directed by Doug Aubrey. Marie is also co-Founding Director of a video training and mentoring outfit called Di- versity Films.

Shiar Abdi

was born in 1973 in Zamar, South Kur- distan, Iraq. At the age of 20 he left his home in Syria for the Netherlands. In 2005 Shiar Abdi moved to Germany where he studied film direction. There he made several short films, which have been shown at many interna- tional festivals. In 2011 he completed his first feature film MESH (WALK- ING), which is one of the first films to be shot in the Kurdish language in Turkey.

Vida Salehi

was born in the city of Sanandaj in East Kurdistan (Iran). She started writing short stories at a very early age and was selected as best young short story writer in Iran for five consecutive years beginning in 1993. In addition to her writing career, Vida has written several film scripts, worked as a photographer for numerous films, and in 2009 she wrote a 20-part series for TV SANA, which was directed by Sattar Chamani- Gol. Vida Salehi has also starred in fea- ture films and is currently heading the Setak Film Distribution Company which distributes Kurdish movies around the globe. She is currently working on script for a film called The Cloudy Skies of Kirkuk, a movie which is planned to be shot in Kirkuk later this year.