Life is tough enough for 10 year-old Gülîstan and Firat her
younger brother and their baby sister living with their family in a small apartment in Diyarbakir in the heart of Turkish Kurdistan amidst the uncertainty of the political unrest in the region. But then when her mother and her father, a celebrated journalist, are assassinated by paramilitary gunmen when their family car is ambushed on a deserted country road one night, things get dramatically worse. Left as orphans to fend completely for themselves, Gülîstan has to become the parent to both her siblings with the help of her political activist young aunt Yekburn who meanwhile is trying to arrange passage and flights for them all to settle safely in neutral Sweden. However before she can manage this, she is arrested and imprisoned and thus disappears completely off the face of the earth.
younger brother and their baby sister living with their family in a small apartment in Diyarbakir in the heart of Turkish Kurdistan amidst the uncertainty of the political unrest in the region. But then when her mother and her father, a celebrated journalist, are assassinated by paramilitary gunmen when their family car is ambushed on a deserted country road one night, things get dramatically worse. Left as orphans to fend completely for themselves, Gülîstan has to become the parent to both her siblings with the help of her political activist young aunt Yekburn who meanwhile is trying to arrange passage and flights for them all to settle safely in neutral Sweden. However before she can manage this, she is arrested and imprisoned and thus disappears completely off the face of the earth. The kids continue to exist from day to day on the pittance that their Aunt had left them, but very soon they run out of money completely. Their electric power is cut off, as is their water supply, and they are forced to sell off every stick of furniture and their few meagre appliances. Very soon they have nothing left to turn into cash and buy food and medicine to save the sickly baby.
Now there are just the two of them left, and with several months of unpaid rent due, they are turfed out into the street with nothing but the ragged clothes on their backs. As they scrounge for food and a place to sleep they come across Zelal a tough street savvy girl who squats with her blind peddler grandfather in the ruins of an Armenian church. As their new friend and guide introduces them to numerous other homeless orphans, for the first time in months, Gülîstan realises that she and Firat are not completely alone anymore.
She also meets up with Dilara a part-time hooker and she starts accompanying her new friend whenever she gets a ‘assignation’ as she adds a air of respectability when Dilara has to hang around Hotel Lobbies or Street Corners waiting for her ‘Dates’ to show up. On one such occasion Gülîstan is shocked rigid when she recognises that the Client is none other than the gunman who had killed her parents in cold-blood right in front of her eyes. How she goes on to extract her revenge in a non-violent manner is a tribute to how she was raised by her strong-willed mother and is a real inspired twist to this intriguing story.This remarkable and controversial movie from German-based Kurdish filmmaker Miraz Beza is a strong indictment of the still un-resolved ethnic conflict where Turks still refuse to recognise a Kurdish State (and in fact no Turkish Company would even distribute this movie). What starts as a blistering heartbreaking tale that limps from one disaster to another, somehow manages to turn itself into something quite uplifting by the time the final credits roll.
The whole project was a labor of love for Beza whose mother sold her house to fund the movie, and his uncle paid all the crew’s hotel expenses, and this strongly motivated committment to tell a very personal story that reflects all the violence and turmoil caused by this Regime clearly shines through in a very emotional manner.
Beza found his two perfect lead actors on country bus and he simply couldn’t have chosen any better. Young Senay Orak who played Gülîstan had these large open soulful eyes that pierced every one with her emotionless stare gave a pitch perfect performance that was matched by Muhammed Al cast as her frightened brother Firat.
Have your box of kleenex ready.
