Kurdish Creative Film Centre

The Manchester Kurdish Film Festival was created in 2005 to provide a space so the region’s Kurdish community could come together to celebrate their native culture and introduce it to a wider audience. Cornerhouse Manchester will be the venue for the 4th Annual Manchester Kurdish Film Festival, which returns in August for an enticing weekend of feature films, shorts, and Q&A sessions with international directors. The festival programme offers eight feature films including one partnership screening with Family Friendly Film festival, one documentary programme and a second partnership screening with KINOFILM. We have a fantastic line up of films for our audiences this year, including award-winners from Cannes, Edinburgh, Sao Paulo and IV DeHumalc Human Rights Festival. Sharam Alidi’s stunning Whisper with the Wind (2009) will be screening for only the second time ever in the UK. The film, in which a devoted messenger travels the Kurdish countryside delivering messages via an underground radio station, won three awards at Cannes. Jani Gal, directed by Jamil Rostami and written by the father of Iraq’s first lady, was Iraq’s entry for the Oscars in 2008. Jamil will be one of several directors taking part in Q&A sessions, and we will also be screening his film Requiem of Snow, which boldly and sensitively captures the story of a young girl as she is led into an unwilling marriage. Awards won include Best Director at both the Olympia International Film Festival for Young People (Greece) and the Fajr Film Festival (Iran). Multi-award winning director Bahman Ghobadi will be presenting two of his films: A Time for Drunken Horses (screened in association with the Family Friendly Film Festival) and the difficult-to-see Marooned in Iraq. Ghobadi will also joining us for a Q&A session. The event will open as is customary with a spectacular performance of traditional and modern Kurdish music, to be held at the Dancehouse, Manchester. Furthermore, during the months of September to November, the festival highlights will tour around selected North West regional high schools. Previously the festival has welcomed over two thousand people, and with such a strong line-up this year we are expecting numbers to exceed this. We suggest tickets are bought early to avoid disappointment! Matinee tickets cost £3.50/£7 and evenings £5/£7 and can be bought from Cornerhouse Manchester.