Öcalan and the Kurdish Question

Feb 13, 2015

0h 52m

★ 8.0

Overview

Kurdistan, partitioned between Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria, could play a major role in a torn Middle East. But who are the Kurds? What influence do they have? Who exactly is Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party? An enlightening investigation by Luis Miranda.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Crescendo Films

Öcalan and the Kurdish Question Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Himself (archive footage)

Abdullah Öcalan

himself

Hugh Pope

himself

Cengiz Çandar

herself

Gültan Kışanak

himself

Sırrı Süreyya Önder

himself

Ahmet Türk

himself

Mahmut Şakar

himself

Adem Uzun

himself

Aldar Xelîl

himself

Antoine Comte

herself

Pervin Budan

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

In Syria, the new government that overthrew Bashar al-Assad's regime on 8 December 2024 has just signed a historic agreement with the Kurds in the north-east of the country. In the heart of a country ravaged by more than 13 years of civil war, this autonomous administration of Syrian Kurdistan could well be integrated into a country that is in need of reconstruction and whose unity remains fragile. But in the north, the war has not stopped. A few kilometres away, neighbouring Turkey has been stepping up its attacks on Rojava for years, while militia abuses persist and the threat of Islamic State continues to loom. From Kobane to Raqqa via the Al-Hol prison camp... For this new long-form feature, Blast took to the roads of northern Syria in January 2025.

No Image

0.0

Es gibt mich noch - Ein Folteropfer aus der Türkei

Apr 24, 1990

Documentary directed by Klaus Antes

8.0

Atatürk, Father of Modern Turkey

Oct 22, 2023

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938.

0.0

Karaoğlan: Bir Ecevit Belgeseli

Jan 1, 2004

No overview available.

10.0

Jiyana Rewsenbireki Kurd: Casimê Celîl

Dec 10, 2021

Casimê Celîl was born into a Yezidi Kurdish family in 1908, in a village called Kızılkule, located in Digor, Kars. The village and family life, which he longed to remember throughout his life, ends with the massacre they endured in 1918. During his long road to Erivan, Armenia, he lost all his family members. Left all alone, Casim was placed into an orphanage and was forced to change his name. To remember who he was and where he came from, every morning he repeated the mantra “Navê min Casim e, Ez kurê Celîlim, Ez ji gundê Qizilquleyê Dîgorê me, Ez Kurdim, Kurdê Êzîdî me”, which translates to: “My name is Casim, I am the son of Celîl, I come from the village of Kızılkule in Digor, I am a Kurd, and I am Yezidi”. He clings to every piece of his culture he can find, reads, and saves whatever Kurdish literature or art he comes across. As the year’s pass, Casim finds himself with an impressive collection of Kurdish culture and history.

0.0

Incomplete Sentences

Jun 25, 2022

Aslı Erdoğan, world-renowned author and activist, has fallen into silence after she fled to Germany. Incomplete Sentences is a feature documentary on her literature and life, leading to exile in Frankfurt, after the Turkish regime’s oppression results in her unlawful imprisonment. Now, she struggles in exile while everybody is waiting for her to write again. Right after getting out of prison Aslı starts telling her story to the director, wandering in the streets of Istanbul she recites parts from her books and explains the stories behind. When Aslı goes to Germany to receive the Erich Maria Remarque Award she cannot return; thus her exile, which she likens to a semi-open prison, begins. As her health deteriorates and keeps her from writing, the tragedy in her books becomes her own reality.

0.0

Turkeys for Xmas

Nov 1, 1915

Feathered friends prepare to meet their fate in this seasonal newsreel outing to a Norfolk turkey farm.

No Image

0.0

Glückliche Reise

Apr 27, 2009

In Turkey, buses are a cheap, widespread and therefore the most important means of public transportation throughout the country. What the airplane is in America and the train is in Europe, the intercity bus is in Turkey. The documentary takes a trip through Turkey using the common people's means of transport.

5.0

The Matchmaker

Aug 31, 2022

A unique interview with Tooba Gondal, the woman who groomed and lured scores of Western women to join ISIS. Using social media, she became a deadly matchmaker, recruiting a number of high-profile “jihadi brides” for ISIS militants in Syria: she allegedly helped organise the transporting of three British schoolgirls, including Shamima Begum, to Syria.

8.1

Blue

Apr 11, 2017

A thorough look at the 90's Turkish rock scene, one legendary stage band and its two members: Kerim Capli and Yavuz Cetin... An inquiry of their existential battles with the society, the industry and their own minds.

8.0

Revza

Apr 1, 2016

While the film focuses on a mother and son’s relationship, it investigates the long-term effects of the immigration of the filmmaker’s family from Bulgaria to Turkey and the life of a widow in a patriarchal culture.

10.0

Al Amal: A Journey of Hope

Feb 20, 2025

An animated short documentary crafted by people on the move in the refugee camp of the island of Lesbos (GR), following the story of Orhan, a Syrian Kurd who fled war with his family in 2013, seeking safety in Turkey—only to find that peace was still a distant dream.

0.0

Sara - My Whole Life Was a Struggle

Jan 4, 2015

Documentary on Sakine Cansız (Sara), the Kurdish revolutionary and PKK co-founder killed in Paris in January 2013 by Turkish agents.

10.0

Refugee Poetry

Apr 2, 2016

The Kurdish Iraqi poet and actor Zeravan Khalil travels with his dog through an Alpine gorge after fleeing from IS war and genocide. As he remembers the abomination, he writes a poem with the title “You drive me mad” in Kurmanji Kurdish. In his home country, Yazidic Kurds are forbidden to work in his profession. Then he eats his apple and wanders through Europe’s middle with more hope.

7.0

Arada

May 27, 2021

The story of three Turkish men. They all grew up in Switzerland and all got deported after various criminal offenses.

0.0

Trans*BUT — Fragments of Identity

Apr 16, 2015

Fragmentary perspectives on Human Rights and transgender (trans*) People in Turkey. What remains at the place where a murder happened? What constitutes trans* life? How to cope with daily violence and hatred? We begin to search for traces. We follow the tracks of resistance and survival. We are collectors of the expelled. We gather fragments of trans* lives inspired by texts of Nazim Hikmet, Foucault, Benjamin and Zeki Müren. Trans*BUT is a documental research study driven by the question: “What keeps you going when all else falls away?”

4.8

Intent to Destroy: Death, Denial & Depiction

Nov 10, 2017

INTENT TO DESTROY embeds with a historic feature production as a springboard to explore the violent history of the Armenian Genocide and legacy of Turkish suppression and denial over the past century.

No Image

0.0

Hell and Hope

Apr 11, 2019

Islamic State militants abducted, raped, tortured, and sold thousands of girls. A few girls risked their lives to escape. What happened to them. This documentary follows those girls.

0.0

Monologue

Sep 30, 2023

Sivan Encü, a young Kurdish man, provided for his family by "smuggling" through the Turkish-Iraqi border. When he was murdered in the 2011 Robozik (Roboski) Massacre, the responsibility of family's welfare was taken over by his younger brother Sinan, who lost his life in an unfortunate accident. This is the story of their grief-stricken mother Heyam and her resilience. Alongside Heyam's struggle, the film brings the voices of Robozik elders and notables to the forefront, who have experienced first-hand the social, political and economic dimensions of smuggling, which has been the backbone of survival for the locals for many generations.