BFFW 2018: Kurdish Feminism: An Other Mountain

Screening and talk with Dr. Hürcan Aslı Aksoy and Burcu Tüm
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This program is dedicated to the Kurdish feminist movement, a movement that is rarely covered and interesting in many ways. The screening of the documentary An Other Mountain, in which we get to meet three Kurdish feminists, two from Istanbul and one from a village in the Black Sea region when they meet up to talk about feminism. After the screening, we will discuss the Kurdish feminist movement and its development since the revolutionary 70s with Dr. Hürcan Asli Aksoy, assistant professor at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, as well as Burcu Tüm, protagonist of the film and feminist living in Istanbul.

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An Other Mountain

In Turkey, there is a proverb that says, “If one of your eyes is crying, the other one can’t laugh”. In the east, it is Turkey’s Kurdistan. In the east, curfews, blockades, Turkish army’s occupation. It is a peace that that one hopes for, but that never comes. It is women in the mountains, rising up, with weapons. Noémi Aubry’s and Anouck Mangeat’s documentary portraits Burcu and SInem, who live in Istanbul with this crying eye. They are going to meet with Ergül, in a little village in the Black Sea region, who participated in the revolutionary struggles of the 70’s that were stilled by the military coup of 1980.

They’ll exchange their political organizations as women and a lot of ‘çay’ (translation of cay). Times are crossing but there is still war, repression and daily violence against which they’re standing up. Kurds, mothers, feminists. There’s resistance and solidarity in their words, their steps, their screams, in the rhythms of their erbane (percussions) against nationalism, war, and patriarchy. That’s another mountain, that they are climbing every day. Bese, Bese, Bese ! Enough, Enough, Enough!

Berlin Feminist Film Week is supported by Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Svenska ambassaden i Berlin and Mobile Kino