- The Turkish military attack in the Rojava region in Kurdistan has also affected culture. The promotion of culture is one of the fundamental pillars of a democratic, egalitarian and plural society that the Kurds have set in motion following the expulsion of Daesh from their lands. The threat of the Turkish military, however, has called this determined commitment into question. For example, the Rojava International Film Festival has had to be suspended. However, the echo of this offensive frustrated by the war has reached the whole world, including Bilbao.
The fourth edition of the Kurdistan Begiratuz cycle has become an act of solidarity and denunciation of the situation in Rojava. During the three Tuesdays of November several films on Kurdistan in the Zirika area of Bilbao, with the symbol of the Rojava Film Festival as a silent witness, have been seen. We have come to the last day's sitting, as they are scheduled for a double sitting.
The first film is Sîka Çiya and la Kurmênc, by the Kurdish filmmaker Azad Evdikarla. The Turkish Army is shot in the Afrin district, while it is carried out on Rojava territory. As the Turks approach, it shows what the everyday life of the city looks like, giving a faithful image of a society in which despair and courage are half-hearted.
The voice of the fugitives of the villages destroyed by the Turks, the hospital workers and the civilian population keeps the thread of the film. The documentary by Evdikece shows the toughest face of the conflict, and yet the Kurds of Afrin have no intention of giving up despite that.
The second film, The Seeds of the Revolution, brings the vision of Euskal Herria to the conflict in Rojava. Since Durango and Kobane are twinned, four women from here moved to this city of Kurdistan, and everything they learned is joined by the film promoted by the Suargi association.
In particular, the Basque representative has shown her surprise and satisfaction at the path towards equality that women have embarked upon thanks to the progressive power of Kurdistan. Local political representatives have explained that they have launched a Women's Act which, in addition to establishing equality between women and men, makes women an active part of society. Kobane's women have to be in the streets, doing things, in the decision-making spaces.
The fate of the Kurds seems to be always in battle. In addition to Rojava, also in the region of Rojalat, dependent on Iran. In the Bilbao programme, Maryam Fathi intervened to denounce the massacre that the Iranian Government has begun in its homeland, Iran. Internet cut, media suspended... The way to publicise the Rojalat struggle is the testimony of Fathi and other Kurds. Without optimism in his words, “the Kurds do not need another front of war, but if the things of Iran continue like this...”