KurdishCinema
An Interview with the Kurdish director Hiner Saleem * Silence tells often much more than words KurdishCinema.com / April 10, 2007 -Why is your film called DOL? "To us Kurds music is like nourishment which is necessary both with birth and death. DOL means ‘drum/drums’ in Kurdish, but has also another meaning. It can also mean ‘valley’. Thus DOL refers to the musical life in a hilly country." -You are sharply criticising the political system of Turkey in DOL. How did you decide to make this film? "In Turkey the official state ideology is Kemalism. This means that only one nation, one language and one religion are allowed to exist. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic, oriented himself very much towards the western life, forbade however the multi-cultural and multinational reality of the country. Therefore, until today there are conflicts between the Kurds and the Turkish state. This ‘dirty war’ which has lasted for more than 20 years between the Turkish Military and the Kurdish population, is not enough considered in the world civic community. I was familiar with the situation of the Kurdish people in Turkey and knew some about the principles of Kemalismus. But when I for the first time visited North Kurdistan (southeast of Turkey) I saw with own eyes ‘happy are those, who can call themselves Turks’ written in the cities and also on the mountains. That was for me a reason for laughter, a laughter connected with tears. I could not believe it before I had seen it with my own eyes - a state which publicly says that its humans are better than other humans. It is obvious that it refers to the Kurds. That is also the reason why these slogans are written in Diyarbakir and in other Kurdish cities. I felt it as dishonour for mankind, but at the same time, it is also a kind of comedy. Because for the world, such ideas disappeared for more than 50 years ago. It was somewhat a visual and simultaneously a bitter truth of our people and a very bitter truth about the Turkish state. I could not understand how a state with such philosophies can go into the 3rd millennium. I had all of these concerns in my head and slowly they developed to a film script." -You shoot the film in the north of Iraq. Did you have difficulties during the shooting work? "Kurdistan is not Iraq, meaning, that there you don’t have the security problems as in the rest of Iraq. It is a peaceful country which tries to reconstruct itself. There is a kind of rebirth and reconstruction there. We have a government and an elected parliament. In this Kurdistan we have a total liberty to film, to write, to create. Thus, the autonomous government of Kurdistan also supported us financially and materially. One can say that I shot DOL not far away from the "Bermuda triangle", at the border to the Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish Kurdistan.
first built a Turkish flag for the shooting. By daybreak I walked to the scene and gazed to the mountains: my flag was no longer there! The village inhabitants had destroyed it during the night. Fortunately I succeeded in persuading them that the flag is only a requisite for my film and that it will be removed the day after the shooting. They accepted this on the condition that after the end of shooting the Turkish flag would be replaced by a Kurdish flag. I left that one there finally as a gift. countries which brought Kurdistan under their rule with force have hindered a development of a cinema culture in Kurdistan. This concerns in particular south Kurdistan (Iraq). There are a lack of film education and technical equipment. That was an enormous problem for us. I was forced to bring with me a part of the film team from Europe." -You have worked together with the cameraman Andreas Sinanos. How did this collaboration take place? "Andreas is a good friend of me, and ‘DOL’ is the fourth film which I make with him. Before I came to know him, I knew his work which he created with the great director Theodoros Angelopoulos. I particularly value how Andreas work with the light. Like that our collaboration was very good and harmonious." -DOL is a quiet film with few dialogues. Is that part of your film language? "That is a characteristic of me. I like to let the pictures speak. Silence tells often much more than words. Except for in my first film, there are few dialogues in my films. I recently ended the shooting of a French film - in the whole film there are only 4 to 5 sentences to be heard." -The casting in DOL does not differ strongly from your previous film "Kilometre Zero"... However, this time a well-known Kurdish musician also plays. "I believed particularly in the artistic abilities of the actors. That was the crucial reason for their partaking. Nazmi Kirik is really very charismatic; and Belcim Bilgin is also a very good actress. Both had already played along in my film Kilometre Zero. In casting of the singer in the film, I thought of Ciwan Haco immediately. He is an outstanding singer and his music influenced young Kurds although his songs for a long time were forbidden in Turkey. In the selection of my actors I did not pay attention from which part of Kurdistan they come." -Today one often hears something about the Kurdish cinema. What can you say about that? "Kurdish cinema strives to go in the direction of the sun and the spring. Not only for me, but for all Kurdish filmmakers it is a big challenge to work in this industry. Governments dominating Kurdistan have always expressed themselves against the cinema and the establishment of the Kurdish culture in general. Like that cinema reached Kurdistan very late. The outdated conceptions in the Kurdish society play here also a negative role. Therefore it is not yet self- evident, for example, for women to play in films. But I am happy that the Kurdish cinema becomes more important every day." * From the press kit of Dol http://www.dol-der-film.de/ |
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