Dil Leyla

DIRECTOR: Aslı Özarslan   COUNTRY: Germany   YEAR: 2016   LANGUAGE(S): Kurdish, German   SUBTITLES: German   RUNNING TIME: 72 min  

SECTION: Internationales Forum 2017, Open Eyes 2017, Open Eyes 2018

SCREENINGS

Friday, 29.09., 6.30 p.m., kommkino, Q&A with Aslı Özarslan

SYNOPSIS

Leyla Imret is the mayor of the small town of Cizre, the heart of Kurdish resistance in Turkey. At just 26, she is the youngest mayor in the country. What’s even more remarkable is that she hadn’t been back to her village since the age of five, when her father, a Kurdish guerilla fighter, was killed and she went to Germany to live with her aunt. Cizre now seems to be entering calmer waters, and so Imret decides to help rebuild the town. She sweeps to victory in the election and the local population welcomes her back like a prodigal daughter. In the interim, however, tensions have increased in the run-up to the Turkish parliamentary elections. The new mayor’s energetic determination slowly but surely makes way for uncertainty and fear. She comes to view her childhood memories in a new light. Will she meet the same fate as her father? A chronicle of youthful
hope contending with more powerful forces.

ASLı ÖZARSLAN

Aslı Özarslan, born in 1986 in Berlin, studied theater and media at the University of Bayreuth as well as philosophy and sociology at the Paris-Sorbonne University. Following her graduation in 2011, she worked in an editorial capacity on film projects for various TV networks. In 2012, she began her studies at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. Dil Leyla is Özarslan’s graduation film.

FILMOGRAPHY
Insel 36 (2014), Dil Leyla (2016)

SCRIPT: Aslı Özarslan   PRODUCERS: Igor Dovgal, Sabrina Proske   CAMERA: Carina Neubohn   EDITOR: Ana Branea  
PRODUCTION: Essence Film   WORLD SALES: Filmdelights   GERMANN DISTRIBUTOR: Igor Dovgal, Essence Film