As 1 November, ‘World Kobanê Day’ approaches, another trailer for the documentary, Kobane: To Stand Up, written and directed by Ferran Domènech Tona, has been released.
The documentary depicts the rebuilding process of Kobane, a Kurdish city where Kurdish-led forces successfully defended a harrowing six-month siege of the city in northern Syria by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014.
Focusing on the realities of Kurdish people in the region, the documentary shows how some have fervently embraced these social changes, while others are thinking of emigrating to Europe.
Through the life stories of two residents, Zilan and Hussein, the documentary enters into the reality of several young people, understanding what they fear and what they long for; visits the scenes where the war against ISIS and subsequent massacres of the civilian population took place; and focuses on the struggles of women working to eradicate patriarchy from society.
In his speech to the 10th Indian Cine Film Festival, Domènech said that the documentary came about after spending two years in Northern Syria, also known as Rojava.
“There have been a lot of films or documentaries about war, but not about how these people feel, how these people lives are after some years of the war,” said Domènech.
While covering the Syrian conflict for Directa and the Rojava Information Center, the experiences of the Kurdish people pushed him to make his first documentary, despite the technical difficulties involved in recording in a country like Syria.
“One of the challenges we faced during the recording of the film was the Turkish attacks that have been happening until now in this area,” added Domènech.
The documentary was released with the support of Çiya Serekaniye as producer, Gaizka Pagona as visual and graphic designer, Gemma Vilaregut Vila as voiceover artist, Roger Cervantes as sound editor and Bernat Enrich Miquel on post-production.
The film will be screened at the 13th annual Hamburg Kurdish Film Festival on 29 October and will be screened in Brussel on 31 October.
‘World Kobane Day’ on 1 November marks the anniversary of the call for international solidarity against the ISIS siege.
