The 14th London Kurdish Film Festival (LKFF) took place from 26 April to 3 May in London, England, during which a diverse selection of 58 films were screened, highlighting aspects of Kurdish culture, politics, and history from all four parts of Kurdistan. The festival concluded on 3 May with a tribute to pro-Kurdish politician, filmmaker and former political prisoner Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who passed away earlier that day in Istanbul at the age of 62 due to multiple organ failure. He was an instrumental figure in the peace talks between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish state.
The LKFF, held since 2001, has grown steadily each year as a leading platform for Kurdish filmmakers. This year’s programme included feature films, documentaries, short fiction, short documentaries, and one short animation. Kurdish experiences in the European diaspora were a major theme, powerfully explored in Hisham Zaman’s A Happy Day, set in a refugee camp in Norway, and Soleen Yusef’s The Winners, which follows Mona, a young footballer travelling from Rojava to Germany.
Women’s resistance was another major theme, with multiple films portraying the suffering of Yazidi women at the hands of ISIS, including Reber Dosky’s documentary The Girls of the Sun and Binevsha Berivan’s feature The Virgin and the Child. The festival closed with a screening of Manal Masri’s documentary Touching Freedom, about two young men who abandon their student lives to film the Kurdish resistance against ISIS in Kobani (Kobanê). After the screening, audience members chanted “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom) in the cinema.
The contribution of 17 women directors at this year’s festival was highlighted during the closing ceremony on 3 May, following the awards presentation to filmmakers and other participants. The ceremony concluded with a speech commemorating Sırrı Süreyya Önder, and a moment of silence was observed. Kurdish artist Kemal Ulusoy reflected on Önder’s legacy as a peace activist and filmmaker, expressing a commitment on behalf of the artists at the LKFF: “We will bring the peace in his heart to life.”
