Sevînaz Evdîkê, an administrator of Rojava Film Commune, spoke to Mezopotamya News Agency about the influence of Yılmaz Güney on the commune and on Kurdish cinema as a whole.

Sevînaz Evdîkê explains that the Rojava Film Commune, inspired by the work of Yılmaz Güney, was established in 2015 after the Rojava Revolution to have academic discussions around Kurdish cinema.

“Before we were fully acquainted with cinema, our only knowledge about Kurdish cinema was Yılmaz Güney and Martyr Halil Dağ. These names became the doors for us to get to know more about Kurdish cinema,” said Evdîkê.

Evdîkê added that Yılmaz Güney is so influencial in Rojava that even people with no knowledge of cinema have heard of him.

“One of the first courses we took at the academy was Kurdish cinema, in which we learned about Yılmaz Güney,” said Evdîkê.

“For many years, no one except Yılmaz Güney was able to bring the issues and experiences of the Kurdish people to the cinema, so we are advancing our cinema in this direction,” added Evdîkê.

With the promotion of Kurdish identity as a basic founding principle, Evdîkê said that the commune works for the Kurdish struggle in a similar way to the story portrayed in ‘Yol of Güney’ (‘The Road’), Winner of the Best Film award at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

The Commune produced three feature documentaries, two fiction features and several short films. Clips and spots can be followed on instagram.

Yılmaz Güney was imprisoned many times in Turkey and later migrated to Paris where he died in 1984.