Sherko Bekas, the acclaimed modern Kurdish poet, died yesterday (4 August) of cancer. Son of the poet Fayak Bekas, Sherko was born in Sulaymani in 1940. He joined the liberation movement in 1965, working for the Voice of Kurdistan radio station until he was forced into exile in 1986 and he then returned to south Kurdistan in 1992.
The Nashville Film Festival always draws crowds of movie buffs from around Middle Tennessee and the rest of the nation. But this year, organizers are welcoming a special contingent from halfway across the globe.
Since 2008, the festival has used a grant to reach out to theNashvillecommunity. So the means were already in place when they got a special request from a very particular group:Nashville’s Kurds–the largest concentration of Kurdish immigrants and refugees anywhere in theUS—wanted to see the films of their people included in the schedule.
Bahman Ghobadi Kurdish Iranian director of Rhino Season film is in competition with Greek filmmaker Costa-Gavras for winning the 60th award of San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain.
Rhino Season is an upcoming film by Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi. It is described as "a love story in context of the political changes from before the Iranian revolution to the present".
The United Nations refugee agency’s special envoy, actress Angelina Jolie, is touring a refugee camp in Jordan for Syrians who fled the civil war in their country.
The Hollywood star arrived on Tuesday morning in the Zaatari camp, which hosts about 27,000 Syrians displaced by the 18-month conflict. She met with Syrian refugee women separately and toured the sprawling tent city.In a speech during her visit, the actress thanked Jordan for accommodating the Syrian refugees.
Duhok International Film Festival has first been held in cooperation with Berlin Kurdish Film festival in 2011. Meanwhile, the decision to have an annual International Film festival in Duhok was taken by the high committee of the festival.
A bookabout the Anfal massacre of Iraqi Kurdish people, penned by a Canadian journalist, will soon be released, said the author.
Anfal in Iraqi Kurdistan, which is written by Suzan Murali who is part-Kurdish, includes tens of stories about the Saddam Hussien's Anfal campaign against Kurdish people between 1986-89 in the last stages of the Iran-Iraq war.
By SHADI HAMID; MARC LYNCH
The Debate over Syria
A rising death toll raises the question: To intervene or not?
Why We Must Fight Alongside the Rebels
By Shadi Hamid
LONDON, United Kingdom – More than 100 films about Kurds or by Kurdish filmmakers are being shown at the London Kurdish Film Festival this week.
In a statement, the festival’s organizing committee said their objective was “to support the development of Kurdish cinema... films made by Kurdish directors on any subject, and films of a feature, short and documentary style nature, on Kurds, by non-Kurdish directors.”
The 2010 edition of the Beirut International Film Festival wound down with a gala award ceremony at Qasr Unesco Wednesday evening. A smattering of prizes were doled out, with top honors going to films from Iraqi Kurdistan and Tunis.
The Damascus Bureau - 27/7/2010
As the largest ethnic minority in Syria, Kurds were hoping in 2000 that their political, social and cultural rights would be finally recognised under the new president. But the past ten years proved to be disappointing.
Despite being a repressed minority in Syria, Syrian Kurds over the last ten years have become more vocal in asserting their political, social and cultural rights, local analysts and political dissidents say.
Western experts believe Kurds are the real winners of last week’s Turkish election but are skeptical that the new parliament will significantly change the political system.
Independent Kurdish candidates won 36 seats in the June 12 parliamentary election, up from 22 seats in the last parliament. Prime Minister Receb Tayyib Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the most votes, 50 percent, which will give the party about 326 seats.
