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Excitement has been building for the release of a Kurdish film depicting Kurdish-led forces’ successful defence against Islamic State (ISIS) jihadis in 2014’s harrowing six-month siege of Kobane in northern Syria, after the film’s trailer was released this week.
The trailer for director Özlem Yaşar’s upcoming film, “Kobane”, was released online on 13 September and shared on the film’s official Twitter account. While no release date has been announced as yet, the trailer’s release has raised hopes that the much-anticipated Kurdish film will hit screens soon.
Yaşar and her fellow screenwriter Media Doz interviewed hundreds of witnesses and fighters for the script, and said the film is based on real stories from survivors of the ISIS siege. The film was shot in the city of Kobane and Tebqa, where the resistance took place, and the plot recalls the reality of the women and men who defended their home towns from jihadists.
“Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, a female Kurdish fighter leads her fellow fighters in the resistance to defend their city “Kobane” from the deadly threat of ISIS,” the Kobane Film website says. The seige of Kobane in 2014 was, “a real story of war, sacrifice, love and hope that kept the whole world on tenterhooks.”
Writer and director Yaşar was born in 1981 in the southeast Turkish province of Batman. She became interested in the arts and theatre groups during high school. Since then, Yaşar has directed theatrical plays, composed scripts, written poetry and prose. She closely follows Kurdish music, literature, theatre, and cinema.
Yaşar has written and directed various short films, and also directed the feature film Berfîn, which was produced by Sine Ciya in 2017.
‘Kobane’ focuses on the siege of Kobane, which was launched by the Islamic State (ISIS) on 13 September, 2014. In a matter of weeks, 350 villages around the city were occupied.
With no intervening international power, ISIS had free access to the area from both Iraq and Turkey. The only barrier between the city and the jihadist group were fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), who confronted ISIS tanks, howitzers, field guns and rocket launchers with only light weapons.
After six months of fighting which left hundreds dead on both sides and almost completely destroyed the city, ISIS was eventually defeated by Kurdish forces with the air support of the International Coalition, and was driven out of the entire area.
