THE LEGEND OF THE UGLY KING

They called him The Ugly King! A myth, a hero, a film legend. Who was Yilmaz Güney? A highly talented director? A revolutioner? A murderer? A genius or a lunatic? Young director Hüseyin Tabak is looking for answers by doing research for a script about the Kurdish filmmaker from Turkey. Güney was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. Mainly for political reasons but also for murdering a judge. He started making movies from jail. His most famous film YOL won the Palm d'Or in 1982. Tabak visits different countries where he meets with Güney's family, his actors, prestigious filmmakers as Michael Haneke or Costa Gavras, former inmates and people on the streets for whom Güney is still a hero. But the deeper Hüseyin digs, the more the legendary ugly king appears human and vulnerable.

RESEBA - THE DARK WIND

The first feature narrative dealing with the genocide against the Yazidi people living in the Kurdish Shingal region through the so called Islamic State. The young Yezidi love couple Reko and Pero gets separated when the Islamic State attacks their village in the Shingal region of Iraqi Kurdistan. The terrorists murder many villagers and sell the beautiful Pero on a slave market. But Reko searches for his fiancée and finds her in Syria. They find shelter in a refugee camp but Pero is deeply traumatized and the future of their love is uncertain.

THE MILAN-PROTOCOL

On her way to a wounded YPJ fighter Martina, a German doctor working and living in Iraqi Kurdistan, gets kidnapped by a Sunnite clan on IS territory in Syria. While Martina is suffering from being captive, different global players in the region try to take advantage of the German hostage. Besides the German Federal Intelligence Service also the Turkish and Kurdish secret services want to be part of “the game”. Not knowing who to trust, Martina starts losing her ability to distinguish between reality and imagination.

GULISTAN, LAND OF ROSES

Zaynê Akyol follows female PKK fighters in the Kurdish territories of Iraq and Syria to take a nuanced look at the guerrilla war. In between focused preparations for their missions against Isis the women take time for personal hygiene, laugh and celebrate exuberantly with their male comrades. The protagonists, always at the centre of the frame, talk openly about their fears and ideals.

HOUSE WITHOUT ROOF

The story of the three siblings ALAN, JAN, and LIYA which were born in Iraqi Kurdistan but grew up in Germany. The three want to fulfil their mother's last wish and burry her in their home village next to their father who died in war. During this fraught Kurdish odyssey they are not only confronted by their big Kurdish family which doesn't accept their mother's wish but also by themselves. During the last years the distance between the family members has increased, each lives his own life and when they talk to each other it soon becomes dominated by mutual accusations. At the same time, a terrible conflict is rising in their home country and first noone recognizes the dimensions of this conflict.

MEMORIES ON STONE

Kurdish childhood friends Hussein (37) and Alan (40) direct and produce a film about the genocide

of Kurdish people in Iraq, the Anfal campaign in 1988. They learn that to achieve veracity by the means

of cinema and to face their own identity, it’s worth putting everything on the line - even their own life.

Trattoria
Lea, 19 years old, wants to meet her father. When she calls him for the first time he tries to get rid of her, he has different problems to solve. Nevertheless, she does not give up and smuggles herself into his life and starts working in his little Trattoria restaurant. But what does this world between pizza, pasta and shady money businesses really mean to him...and finally also to her?

NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS
Recently released from prison, two young musicians - a man and a woman - decide to form a band. Together they trawl the underworld of contemporary Tehran searching for other players. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan to escape from their clandestine existence, and dream of performing in Europe. But with no money and no passports, it won’t be easy...

TRACES - LE PEUPLE DU PAON
The young filmmaker Binevsa Bêrîvan travels to the Yezidi Kurds in Armenia. She seeks to capture the daily life and difficulties of the Yezidi Kurds. This ethnic group is the last representative of one of the oldest religions in Mesopotamia. Yezidi Kurds became victims of the intolerance of the Ottoman Reich in the beginning of the 19th century.

CLOSE UP KURDISTAN
In the documentary film CLOSE-UP-KURDISTAN the Kurdish director Yüksel Yavuz creates a connection between his personal story of immigration and the current situation of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict.

APRÈS LA CHUTE
The end of Saddam Hussein´s regime. Kurdish exiles celebrate the best day of their lives and Azad organises a big party for family and friends who arrive bearing food and drink to prepare a feast of dishes and desserts. Kurdish television broadcasts non-stop footage of general jubilation, as the guests sing, dance, and drink.