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Director’s Profile

Shawkat Amin Korki was born in 1973. Originally from Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan, he and his family fled from Iraqi military oppression to Iran in 1975, where they exiled for 25 years. Korki studied Cinema there. After a series of his award-winning short films, Korki has gained international recognition with the completion of his debut feature film in Iraqi Kurdistan, Crossing the Dust (2006). Three years after, Shawkat Amin Korki completed his second feature film. Kick off Kirku, was released to a critical acclaim worldwide, receiving world-renowned awards such as the New Current Award and Fipresci Film Critics Award at the Busan International Film Festival (2009), the Golden Horse Award at the Dubai International Film Festival (2009), the Grand Prize at the Gulf Film Festival (2010) and Grand Prize at the Taipei International Film Festival (2010). Korki lives and works in Erbil.

Synopsis

After Saddam`s collapse in Iraq, childhood friends Alan and Huseyin decide to produce a film about Al Anfal- a genocide that still lives in the memories of Kurdish people. Yet between religious extremists, locations full of land mines and equipment smuggling, the making of a film in post-war Kurdistan will reveal itself as an odyssey. Not to mention the most difficult task of all: finding the appropriate lead actress. After painstaking efforts, they finally find the right girl.
Sinor... young and beautiful, she is passionate about this project. Sinor, who lives with her mother Rojda, needs to get her uncle Hemin`s permission. Her father having disappeared at war, it is Hemin who calls the shots. Both filmmakers visit the uncle to try and convince him that Sinor act in the film. Hemin refuses: "as long as Sinor is not married, she cannot appear on screen!” We soon find out that Sinor is in love with the young and charismatic Heval. But Heval is the son of a former Saddam collaborator and seen as a traitor in the community- it is a forbidden relationship. Instead, the uncle wants to marry Sinor off to Huseyin, but he refuses. The search for an actress starts again. This time around, it brings them to the Kurdish part of Iran, where they believe they have found another suitable candidate: Yekbun. Still, they fail to smuggle Yekbun across the border and she has to stay behind. The whole team is ssembled and ready for the shoot, yet they still have no lead actress. Huseyin has no other choice- he and Sinor decide to stage a fake engagement up until the shoot wraps. Heval leaves Sinor. It is only later that we will understand why she`s risking everything to be part of this film... The shoot starts. Behind the scenes, the problems are never-ending. When the press and uncle Hemin find out that Sinor will play a raped girl, the film crew faces yet more obstacles. In a tragic
twist of events, Huseyin steps on a mine whilst on location. He loses his leg, and the production is suspended. Now, the biggest question arises: will the film ever be finished?

Achievements

*APM 2011 Goteborg Film Festival Fund Award
2014 Busan International Film Festival
2014 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
2014 Haifa International Film Festival
2014 Abu Dhabi Film Festival
2014 Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival
2015 Hong Kong International Film Festival
2015 Istanbul Film Festival

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