Known for Acting
The story is set in a tiny Kurdish village. Isa’s younger brother is murdered and brought back to his hometown. Two weeks after the funeral, his mother Zîn dreams of giving a wedding celebration for her deceased son. This strange idea sparks off a host of contradictory feelings within her, and between her and Isa and family members, who are still reeling from the trauma and grief of losing a brother. The family gradually proceeds into a grey area in their relationship. These ordinary people find themselves living in a psychological minefield wrestling on the planes between logic, norms, emotions, and irrationality.
In 2015, the Syrian boy Aylan appeared dead on the beach in Bodrum, Turkey. The image shocked and alerted the world to the refugee crisis. The film imagines what would have happened to this child until the day of his death, when the boat in which he was with a family heading to Greece turned on the high seas. The story arises from a moment of magical realism, in which Aylan's spirit emerges from his body and wanders back to the world of refugees and those provoked by war, who escape to escape for a better life.
Zagros (26) is a shepherd who lives in a Kurdish village with his pregnant wife Havin and their daughter. His father tells him that people gossip about Havin: there are rumours of her having an affair. Zagros brushes his father’s concerns away as he trusts his wife and refuses to give credit to the rumours. Later, while Zagros tends to his sheep, he learns that his family have accused Havin of adultery and locked her up. Zagros returns to his village but finds his wife and daughter gone. Havin has fled to the west with their daughter and unborn child. Zagros, believing his wife’s innocence and opposing his father, travels to Istanbul and meets a smuggler who can take him to the west…
Turkey, after the 1980 military coup. In the notorious Diyarbakır prison, the prisoners decide to resist the torture. 14 July 1982 is the day when the biggest resistance starts.
Kurdish childhood friends Hussein and Alan want to produce a film about the genocide of Kurdish people in Iraq, the Anfal campaign in 1988. They learn that, to achieve veracity by the means of cinema and to face their own identity, it's worth putting everything on the line - even their own life.
Baran, a war hero, becomes sheriff of the capital and refuses to bow down to a tribal chief.
Murat is a sound recordist who lives in Istanbul. He makes an unexpected connection in his records between a grandmother and a grandchild, which becomes a trip to the family's past to strengthen their ties.
Xate is an ordinary woman from Midyat with eight children in tow. The only thing that sets her apart is her husband's job as Mayor of Midyat. Until, that is, an extraordinary day changes her life - and the lives of everyone else in Midyat. For the illiterate, uneducated Xate becomes Mayor of Midyat! While she takes on her mayoral duties much as she does those in her house, the infantile rivalry between her children in municipal matters leads to adventures that have the Midyat folk howling with laughter.
