Diyar Hesso

A musical about the history of the Kurdistan Freedom Movement

Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, a female Kurdish fighter guides her fellow fighters in the resistance to defend their city, Kobanê, from the deadly threat of ISIS. A real story of war, sacrifice, love and hope that kept the whole world on tenterhooks.

Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, a female Kurdish fighter guides her fellow fighters in the resistance to defend their city, Kobanê, from the deadly threat of ISIS. A real story of war, sacrifice, love and hope that kept the whole world on tenterhooks.

Back in his hometown after his university studies, Servan is witness to the burning down of his village and a series of other atrocities which eventually lead him to join the Kurdish resistance. In the ranks of the Kurdish liberation movement, he is seriously injured in clashes with the Turkish army. In order not to slow down his comrades and allow them to escape, Servan insists that he be left behind. Against all odds, he survives, enduring several days of acute pain. However, his friends cannot come back to pick him up, the area being surrounded by Turkish soldiers. As the soldiers approach, Servan decides to leave his hide away in spite of his serious injuries. He sets out to find his friends, overcoming countless obstacles in the forest, but nevertheless helped by Kurdish villagers throughout his journey. However, he is hunted down by death squads and village guards.

Shamima Begum and Hoda Muthana made it into worldwide headlines when they left their countries to join ISIS. When they return, their countries don't want them back.

Zilan, a young woman, returns to her home town looking for traces of her dead brother, killed by ISIS. But her town is not what it used to be: social and political tensions have escalated into a state of war. The people have risen up to demand their political autonomy and the police and army repress them with brutal force. But the city’s resistance will go on for more than 100 days and Zilan will not remain a passive witness. Based on the diaries of those who died fighting and the testimony of survivors, who are the protagonists of the film, Çelik's first feature explores concepts such as hope, friendship, sacrifice and loss in the struggle for freedom of a group of young people.

Kurds call it Rojava, or the West, the place where the sun sets on Kurdish lands: the north of Syria, the stage of the most violent war of our times, painted in blood by the mass-rape and mass-killings of the ISIS terrorist organization. It is here, in Rojava, in three destroyed cities, that three separate stories tell the story of how savage war destroys not only our cities, but our people, too. Sinjar, Kobanî and Jazaa are three towns that display the most destructive impact of modern war. All three are in the process of being rebuilt at the moment. The people who live here have transformed their tragedies into a determination to leave a better Rojava for future generations.