Min Dît: The Children of Diyarbakır
Encyclopedia
Min Dît: The Children of Diyarbakır is a 2009 kurdish drama film
, written, produced and directed by German-based Kurdish
filmmaker Miraz Bezar, based on a story co-written with Alevi
-Kurdish
journalist and short-story writer Evrim Alataş, about street children in the eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakır
. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on , was the first film from Turkey to feature the Kurdish language
and won awards at film festivals in San Sebastian, where it premiered, Antalya and Istanbul.
Some in the audience ask if children face these situations in real life,, With some exceptions, all live under such circumstances; they grow up in an atmosphere of peak violence. Hakan Karsak, who features in the film, added, We, in Turkey, try to understand the children in Iraq
, Iran
, Afghanistan
and Palestine
, but we never consider the situation of the children living in the kurdish part of Turkey. Now it is time to look at life from the perspective of a kurdish child. In the end this is a film about violence, the history of violence here in Turkey, the director has concluded, I want people to understand that violence produces violence. This is a story of children who want to stop or at least escape this violence.
Miraz Bezar casted the actors himself. Şenay Orak and Muhammed Al were casted after the director met them on a bus trip to Urfa. Their highly acclaimed performances have been attributable to the fact that they are not only very talented child-actors but are also children who suffered experiences similar to the characters in the film.
Hakan Karsak, who plays one of the paramilitary murderers, was casted after the director had seen him on stage and was taken by his passion and talent while other adult performers including Fahriye Çelik, Alişan Önlü, Berivan Eminoğlu and Berivan Ayaz were also recruited locally. Suzan İlir was cast after trying to sell the director a bottle of water in one of the cemeteries in Diyarbakır. She at first did not want to tell me her name, but I finally convinced her that I was going to shoot a film and that I want her to help me.
In order to raise the initial budget of 80,000 euros for the film, Bezar’s mother sold her house and his uncle paid the team’s hotel expenses. Each time I felt like we were at the edge of the abyss some small thing would come and pull us back, a reminder of why it was so important to tell this story, the director has said. There are still team members who have not gotten paid. Most of them did it to support the film. Well-known German-Turkish director Fatih Akın
later joined Klaus Maeck as co-producer after he was shown a rough cut of the film.
It was a real challenge to do this film because we never knew if it would make it through the censorship in Turkey, the director has stated, so much of the Turkish state has been built on lies; that there is only one people, only one language. I think that an opening is still too big of a word for what is happening,” he has said, “but it’s worth remembering that all the things that were taboo when we started writing and shooting the film are now beginning to be talked about. No matter what, I finally did what I wanted to do, this can be a small step in the right direction.
Out of political reasons no turkish distributor wanted to distribute the film. So director Miraz Bezar had to distribute the film himself. Nevertheless the film opened in Turkey on on nine Theatres in Ankara
, Van
, Diyarbakır
, Mersin
and Urfa and found an audience of 24.000.
, states, there was a standing ovation for what promises to be the most controversial film of the festival, it is the first feature-length film of Miraz Bezar and one with heart and meaning. The film's young stars were themselves recruited from the bands of young marauding street vendors to whom the film is dedicated, and, he continues, Şenay Orak, who plays the sister, has a face as economical in expression as Robert Mitchum
's and a more schooled performers ability to evince a world of emotion with a single blink. Like “Slumdog Millionaire
,” the film is uplifting, but, he continues, Unlike “Slumdog,” the plot is not mawkishly sentimental and only a little bit contrived. Not everyone, of course, cheered, he concludes, “Min Dît” is not the sort of story that will comfort the prejudices of a Turkish audience nor is Kurdish a language they expect to hear. We must wait to see what sort of reception it gets.
Emrah Güler, writing in Hürriyet Daily News, describes the film as, the latest in a line of movies focusing on the Kurdish problem in Southeast Anatolia, which he believes indicates that, the Turkish government’s Kurdish initiative seems to be working for Turkish cinema. He warns, those who might find orphaned children on the streets too heavy for weekend entertainment, but recommends the film to, those interested in catching a glimpse of uncharted territory for Turkish cinema.
Emine Yıldırım, writing about the films screening at the Istanbul Film Festival in Today's Zaman
, describes the film as, a worthy watch, which might be a personal story, but Turkey is no stranger to its premise; it is successful in bringing to light the plight of many children orphaned in Turkey’s southeastern Anatolia region due to political conflicts. Make no mistake, the review continues, this is a tragic tale, but it comes out as truthful as it can and should be, despite Bezar’s occasional inclination toward an idealist reductionism on political issues. The review concludes, Perhaps not a perfect film, though such should be accepted of a debut, “Min Dît” is a raw and genuine story. While Yavuz Baydar, in the same publication, calls it, one of the highlights of the festival.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
, written, produced and directed by German-based Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
filmmaker Miraz Bezar, based on a story co-written with Alevi
Alevi
The Alevi are a religious and cultural community, primarily in Turkey, constituting probably more than 15 million people....
-Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
journalist and short-story writer Evrim Alataş, about street children in the eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...
. The film, which went on nationwide general release across Turkey on , was the first film from Turkey to feature the Kurdish language
Kurdish language
Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
and won awards at film festivals in San Sebastian, where it premiered, Antalya and Istanbul.
Production
Director Miraz Bezar, who was born in Ankara, Turkey but moved to Germany when he was nine years old, knew a lot about the Kurdish issue and the situation in eastern Turkey before he started writing the script. But he didn´t want to write a script far away in Germany. I wanted to go to Diyarbakır after I completed my degree at the Berlin Film Academy and experience the situation myself, Inspired by the stories of the people he met there, he started to work with his aunt Evrim Alataş, journalist and short-story writer, to develop the scenario, which was scripted first in Turkish and then translated into Kurdish for filming.Some in the audience ask if children face these situations in real life,, With some exceptions, all live under such circumstances; they grow up in an atmosphere of peak violence. Hakan Karsak, who features in the film, added, We, in Turkey, try to understand the children in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, but we never consider the situation of the children living in the kurdish part of Turkey. Now it is time to look at life from the perspective of a kurdish child. In the end this is a film about violence, the history of violence here in Turkey, the director has concluded, I want people to understand that violence produces violence. This is a story of children who want to stop or at least escape this violence.
Miraz Bezar casted the actors himself. Şenay Orak and Muhammed Al were casted after the director met them on a bus trip to Urfa. Their highly acclaimed performances have been attributable to the fact that they are not only very talented child-actors but are also children who suffered experiences similar to the characters in the film.
Hakan Karsak, who plays one of the paramilitary murderers, was casted after the director had seen him on stage and was taken by his passion and talent while other adult performers including Fahriye Çelik, Alişan Önlü, Berivan Eminoğlu and Berivan Ayaz were also recruited locally. Suzan İlir was cast after trying to sell the director a bottle of water in one of the cemeteries in Diyarbakır. She at first did not want to tell me her name, but I finally convinced her that I was going to shoot a film and that I want her to help me.
In order to raise the initial budget of 80,000 euros for the film, Bezar’s mother sold her house and his uncle paid the team’s hotel expenses. Each time I felt like we were at the edge of the abyss some small thing would come and pull us back, a reminder of why it was so important to tell this story, the director has said. There are still team members who have not gotten paid. Most of them did it to support the film. Well-known German-Turkish director Fatih Akın
Fatih Akin
Fatih Akın is a German film director, screenwriter and producer of Turkish descent.- Personal life :Akın was born in 1973 in Hamburg to parents of Turkish ethnicity...
later joined Klaus Maeck as co-producer after he was shown a rough cut of the film.
It was a real challenge to do this film because we never knew if it would make it through the censorship in Turkey, the director has stated, so much of the Turkish state has been built on lies; that there is only one people, only one language. I think that an opening is still too big of a word for what is happening,” he has said, “but it’s worth remembering that all the things that were taboo when we started writing and shooting the film are now beginning to be talked about. No matter what, I finally did what I wanted to do, this can be a small step in the right direction.
Synopsis
The lives of 10-year-old Gülistan and her brother, Fırat, are turned upside down one quiet and dark night on the Diyarbakır-Batman highway while they’re on their way home with their parents from a wedding in a nearby village. Their father, a journalist working with a local newspaper, and their mother, who gave birth just six months ago to their baby sister, Dilovan, are murdered by paramilitary forces. The kids are taken care of by their aunt, the sister of their late mother. However, a few weeks on, their aunt goes missing, too. Left alone to look after their baby sister at such a young age, when they are not even capable of taking care of themselves, the kids are left penniless, and a few weeks later, they are forced to live on the streets of Diyarbakır, where they will have to fight really hard to survive.Release
The film received its controversial Turkish premiere at the 46th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, where some audience members protested that, There has never been a Kurdish state and there will never be one. To which the director responded, Cinema is a form of art. People do not have to agree with or believe in what they saw. The film was later awarded the grand jury prize.Out of political reasons no turkish distributor wanted to distribute the film. So director Miraz Bezar had to distribute the film himself. Nevertheless the film opened in Turkey on on nine Theatres in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, Van
Van, Turkey
Van is a city in southeastern Turkey and the seat of the Kurdish-majority Van Province, and is located on the eastern shore of Lake Van. The city's official population in 2010 was 367,419, but many estimates put this as much higher with a 1996 estimate stating 500,000 and former Mayor Burhan...
, Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...
, Mersin
Mersin
-Mersin today:Today, Mersin is a large city spreading out along the coast, with Turkey's second tallest skyscraper , huge hotels, an opera house, expensive real estate near the sea or up in the hills, and many other modern urban...
and Urfa and found an audience of 24.000.
Box office
The film twice reached number nineteen in the Turkish box office and has made a worldwide total gross of US$101,327.Reviews
Andrew Finkel, writing about the film's premiere in Today's ZamanToday's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
, states, there was a standing ovation for what promises to be the most controversial film of the festival, it is the first feature-length film of Miraz Bezar and one with heart and meaning. The film's young stars were themselves recruited from the bands of young marauding street vendors to whom the film is dedicated, and, he continues, Şenay Orak, who plays the sister, has a face as economical in expression as Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
's and a more schooled performers ability to evince a world of emotion with a single blink. Like “Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
,” the film is uplifting, but, he continues, Unlike “Slumdog,” the plot is not mawkishly sentimental and only a little bit contrived. Not everyone, of course, cheered, he concludes, “Min Dît” is not the sort of story that will comfort the prejudices of a Turkish audience nor is Kurdish a language they expect to hear. We must wait to see what sort of reception it gets.
Emrah Güler, writing in Hürriyet Daily News, describes the film as, the latest in a line of movies focusing on the Kurdish problem in Southeast Anatolia, which he believes indicates that, the Turkish government’s Kurdish initiative seems to be working for Turkish cinema. He warns, those who might find orphaned children on the streets too heavy for weekend entertainment, but recommends the film to, those interested in catching a glimpse of uncharted territory for Turkish cinema.
Emine Yıldırım, writing about the films screening at the Istanbul Film Festival in Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman
Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....
, describes the film as, a worthy watch, which might be a personal story, but Turkey is no stranger to its premise; it is successful in bringing to light the plight of many children orphaned in Turkey’s southeastern Anatolia region due to political conflicts. Make no mistake, the review continues, this is a tragic tale, but it comes out as truthful as it can and should be, despite Bezar’s occasional inclination toward an idealist reductionism on political issues. The review concludes, Perhaps not a perfect film, though such should be accepted of a debut, “Min Dît” is a raw and genuine story. While Yavuz Baydar, in the same publication, calls it, one of the highlights of the festival.
Awards
- 57th San Sebastián International Film Festival - Gaztea Youth Award (Miraz Bezar)
- 46th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival - Behlül Dal Special Jury Award for Screenwriting (Miraz Bezar)
- 18th Filmfest Hamburg - Young Talent Award (Miraz Bezar)
- 36th Ghent Film Festival - Special Jury Prize (Miraz Bezar)
- 15th Nuremberg Turkish-German Film Festival - Audience Award
- 17th Febiofest International Film Festival Prague - Grand Prix
- 29th International Istanbul Film Festival29th International Istanbul Film FestivalThe 29th International Istanbul Film Festival was a film festival held in Istanbul, Turkey, which ran from April 3 to 18, 2010. More than 200 films were screened in 23 categories at seven movie theatres including Atlas, Rüya, Beyoğlu, Sinepop, Pera Museum theaters in Beyoğlu, the Kadıköy theater...
- Best Director Award (Miraz Bezar), Best Actress Award (Şenay Orak) & Best Music Award (Mustafa Biber)
External links
- Fairytale and Social Utopia by Claudia Hennen at Qantara.de.
- From banned to box office: a Kurdish story by Nichole Sobecki at globalpost.com.