Welcome to the first London Kurdish Film Festival!

The festival brings together feature films, documentaries and shorts, from all over the world, made by Kurdish film makers or about Kurdish issues. There will also be discussions with film makers, panels and workshops.

Feature film highlights include: the British premiere of Kazim Öz's THE PHOTOGRAPH, winner of the Best Film award at this year's Milan Film Festival; restored prints of Yilmaz Güney's THE HERD and Cannes Palme d'Or winner YOL; Stavros Ioannou's ROADBLOCKS from Greece; a portrait of the Kurdish exile experience through the eyes of a child - Ben Sombogaart's THE BOY WHO STOPPED TALKING from Holland; Hiner Saleem's BEYOND OUR DREAMS about a young refugee couple's flight to France; opportunities to re-view two critically acclaimed films from Iran Bahman Ghobadi's A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES and Samira Makhmalbaf's BLACKBOARDS; Araz Rashid's THE BURNING PARADISE reflecting the Iraqi-Kurdish experience; Kenny Glenaans' GAS ATTACK; another opportunity to see Yesim Ustaoglu's acclaimed JOURNEY TO THE SUN.

Documentary highlights include GOOD KURDS BAD KURDS by American journalist Kevin McKiernan, ADANA-PARIS about YIlmaz Güney, SILENT DEATH challenging the introduction of the isolation cell system in Turkish prisons, and REFUSAL 1111 about conscientious objectors to conscription to the Turkish army.

Guests attending the festival will be: Hüseyin Karabey (director of SILENT DEATH), Yüksel Yavuz (film director), Kazim Öz (director THE PHOTOGRAPH), Araz Rashid (director of THE BURNING PARADISE) and Ahmet Soner (director of ADANA-PARIS and former of colleague of Yilmaz Güney).

All films will have English subtitles except ADANA-PARIS and REFUSAL 1111.

We hope you will come and enjoy the rich programme, and help make the Kurdish Film Festival an annual event in the cultural calendar of London.

The festival is presented by the Kurdish Film Festival Organising committee and the Rio Cinema.