51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

Kurds live in many different countries in the Middle East and Asia, but until recently they were forced to live without a self-governing region. Nevertheless, Kurdish cinema has flourished, especially since the turn of the 21stcentury. Both feature films and documentaries proliferate throughout the region. This course will look closely at contemporary Kurdish films and documentaries. The course will also explore some canonical texts about Kurdish culture and history in different countries which will help us contextualize the films shown throughout the term. We will interrogate how Kurdish film directors and documentary makers, such as Yilmaz Güney, Bahman Qubadi, Mano Khalil, Jano Rosebiani, Hisham Zaman, Sahim Omar Kalifa, Kazım Öz, Yüksel Yavuz, Hiner Saleem and Leyla Toprak, represent Kurdish identity, heritage, gender, history, poverty, contemporary politics, and the sense of place in the Middle East. The students will be expected to write two research papers for this class.