Հայերեն
The Others
The Kurdish province Van in Turkey is famous for its unique cats, which are the cultural symbol of the Kurds, Turks and the Armenians. Van was the historical home of the Armenians until 1915 – the year of the Genocide. Nowadays all that remains are the ruins of countless churches and a small number of inhabitants with Armenian roots, though most of them are scared to admit this. The 34-year-old Ali speaks openly about his Armenian grandmother Piroze. He accompanies us through the world of the residents, one that is filled with taboos, distrust and fear. The film tracks down the traces of this cruel history and shows that, “the past is never dead, it is not even past.”
Awards
Special Mention, Istanbul Film Festival, Turkey, 2016
Ayşe Polat
Born in 1970, Turkish-Kurdish scriptwriter and director of feature and documentary films Ayşe Polat has lived in Germany since she was eight. She studied German, philosophy and cultural sciences in Berlin and Bremen (1991-1993), and while she was studying, made films as an autodidact. Her second film En garde won several awards, including Silver Leopard for Best Film and Best Actress at the International Film Festival in Locarno (2004) and the German Film Critics Award for Best Fiction Film 2005. In 2006, Polat also staged her first play “Otobüs” at the Berlin theatre Hebbel am Ufer.
Filmography
Strange Night,1992 (short)
A Feast for Beyhau, 1994 (short)
Countess Sophia Hatun, 1997 (short)
Foreign Tour, 2000 (feature)
En garde, 2004 (feature)
Luk’s Luck, 2010 (feature)
The Heiress, 2013 (feature)
The Others, 2016
WATCH FILM TRAILER
Film Details:
Turkey/ Germany, 2016, 68’
in Turkish/ Kurdish w/ Arm./ Eng. subtitles
Director & Writer: Ayşe Polat
Producers: Said Nur Akkus, Mehmet Aktas, Ayşe Polat
Cinematographers: Armin Dierolf, Meryem Yavuz
Music: Florian Tippe
Editor: Eyüp Zana Ekinci
Production Company: PeroFilm, PunktPunktPunkt Filmproduktion