Kurdish films and information session at the Galway Film Festival

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday July 10, 2002 09:30 by Maggie

A film set in the context of the gassing of 5000 Kurdish women, children and men in Halabja by Saddam Hussein’s troops in 1988 is to be shown at the Galway film festival. Discussion afterwards. July 10th at 7pm, Town Hall Theatre, Galway.

A film set in the context of the gassing of 5000 Kurdish women, children and men in Halabja by Saddam Hussein’s troops in 1988
is to be shown at the Galway film festival. The screening will take place on July 10th at 7pm in the Town Hall Theatre. The American-Kurdish director of Jiyan (meaning life in Kurdish), Jano Rosebiani, will be attending and there is a question and answer session afterwards. The director asked us to say that this is the first film to tour the world and be named as a Kurdish film. In addition, a friend who is seeking asylum in Ireland from near Suleimaniya in South Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) will be visiting us
and at the screening. There will be an informal get-together in the bar of the Spanish Arch Hotel after the event (room at the back) for
a chat and further information.
For those in the Galway area, please come along to either/both the screening and/or the pub afterwards if you want to find out more
about the situation in South Kurdistan. In view of the threatened war on Iraq, the centrality once again of the situation of the Kurdish
people to that and the blatant attempts of the US government to use what happened to the Kurdish people of Halabja as a ‘reason’ for war, this is a chance to hear about the reality of the situation from those from the region itself.
There is another Kurdish film on the following day at 2pm in the Omniplex, called A Time for Drunken Horses, which is set in the
part of Kurdistan in Iran. Unfortunately, the festival organisers have listed it as Iranian rather than Kurdish. Jano will also be introducing this film.
For further info/confirmation, contact Maggie Ronayne at 087 7838688 or email: maggie.ronayne@nuigalway.ie