AZADÎ MOVIE

THE PROJECT:

The campaign aims to raise funds to continue the production of the short film Azadî, which, in an experimental and poetic way, through the arts—Kurdish dance and songs as forms of resistance—will address Kurdish political prisoners and the processes of cultural assimilation suffered by the population.

CONTEXT:

The script was born from a personal inspiration of the director and the feelings provoked by longing for a Kurdish friend, deprived of his freedom and imprisoned in Turkey. They met in South Africa and used to meet in a place from where they could see Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela served this year most of his 27-year sentence. Abdullah Öcalan, a Kurdish leader, is serving this year 27 years of his life sentence, and countries like Turkey, Syria, and Iran continue to imprison millions of Kurds as part of a repressive policy.

The first scenes of the film have already been produced in Cape Town, South Africa, by photographer Wayne Hipe, under the direction of the film's director, Marina Nobel. In this second stage, we intend to film scenes with a multifaceted Kurdish artist who will present traditional Kurdish dances and songs from his culture, in resistance to processes of cultural assimilation and oppression. The scenes will be filmed in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where the film's director lives, as will carried out the other stages of production and post-production. We intend to distribute the film at national and international festivals to promote discussions about the Kurdish issue and different contexts of oppression, racism, and resistance. The screening of the film in Brazil is very important and relevant, since the cause is not widely known.

FILM SYNOPSIS :

In the ruins facing the sea, Azadî and I watched the sunset and saw Robben Island, which was formerly a prison during Apartheid in South Africa. Azadî told me about the repression his Kurdish ethnic group suffered throughout the centuries and their resistances. A few months later, Azadî was arrested. In one of his letters, he wrote to me, paraphrasing Nelson Mandela: “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” I return here, in the non-linearity of time, so that we can resist together.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Marina Nobel is an anthropology, completed a film course, is a researcher at NUPIEC, the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Kurdish Studies and a militant with MOB/MG (Movimento de Organização de Base de Minas Gerais).

Her first film, Fazendinha, circulate in some important festivals like Belo Horizonte International Film Festival, made part of the feature film competition at the Diamantina Film Festival, and was created through the intersection of her activism and her research on urban occupations, social movements, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Marina Nobel draws inspiration from cinema as a democratic, popular, and political tool.

Instagram profile: ​​https://www.instagram.com/nobel.marina_/

TOTAL GOAL: airfare for the Kurdish multi-artist (Turkey to Brazil): €1.500