Tearing Walls Down
ŞERIF ÇIÇEK and HEBÛN POLAT
Bakur/Turkey and Germany, 2023
Kurmanci and Turkish, with English subtitles
Documentary
50 minutes
Synopsis:
In Turkey, opposition politicians who oppose violence, agitation and repression are dismissed, persecuted, or imprisoned. Especially since November 4, 2016, the AKP government has imprisoned hundreds of opposition politicians or forced them into exile in an attempt to silence them. This film features four Kurdish women politicians, Figen Yüksekdağ, Gültan Kışanak, Aysel Tuğluk, and Sibel Yiğitalp, whose “crime” was to struggle for a hopeful and pluralistic world against an antidemocratic government.
Directors’ biographies:
Serif Çiçek, born in 1992 in Diyarbakir, worked on numerous film projects in Istanbul as assistant to the production designer and assistant to the director. In 2017 and 2018, in Rojava/ North and East Syria, he collaborated with the Rojava Film Commune. He then moved to Germany and worked as a director and producer for Art Records Production. With Art Records, he has directed and produced numerous music videos and TV programs. He serves as the European representative of the Rojava Film Commune. His first documentary, Prison or Exile (2021), was previously screened by the New York Kurdish Film Festival.
Hebûn Polat, also born in 1992 in Diyarbakir, studied philosophy at Istanbul University and now works in cinema and TV. Welatek Hebû (There Was a Country, 2018) was his first short film. He did camera work for the film Kobane (2022). For Tearing Walls Down, he headed the team in Turkey/Bakur.
Link to the trailer
You can watch the film trailer here.