THE CIRCLE

directed by Rûken Tekeş

14mn, 2016, Turkey

synopsis

In Mesopotamia, there are children of different ethnicities, religions and languages. Zelal \, a 7 year old petite girl, is an ethnic Kurd as well as religiously an Ezidi. Zelal along with her schoolmates, Zeki and Bekir, both 9 years old boys, attends a school where the one and only official education based on Turkish. An ordinary school day turned into a life-changing event for Zelal and her introvert admirer Zeki after their teacher introduces the letter of the week ‘O’…

about the director

Rûken Tekeş, Kurdish born on 1976 in Diyarbakır –Turkey, lived in Istanbul, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Athens, Viena, Venice, Kiev, San Diego and Moscow for education and work. She has a Master’s Degree on Human Rights and Democratization from European Interuniversity Consortium on Human Rights and Democratization in Venice / Italy.

She worked a number of years as human rights expert for United Nations and following that as lecturing Professor in the university. She actively supports human rights advocacy through medium of art, specially films, in various platforms of Europe and as an activist she continues to support NGOs and social collective initiatives.

THE CIRCLE is her first short film shot in 2016.

festivals

39th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, OFFICIAL SELECTION
33rd Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, WINNER Best Film by an Emerging Director
23th Oldenburg International Film Festival 2016, WINNER Best Short Film & German Independence Award
40th Montreal World Film Festival, OFFICIAL SELECTION
14th Mediterranean Short Film Festival, OFFICIAL SELECTION

credits

ORIGINAL TITLE Hevêrk
ENGLISH TITLE The Circle
GENRE short film
COUNTRY Turkey
RUNNING TIME 14’
LANGUAGE Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic
YEAR 2016
FORMAT 2.35, DCP
SOUND 5.1
DIRECTOR / WRITER Ruken Tekeş
PRODUCER Ruken Tekeş
DOP Deniz Eyüboğlu
EDIT Özcan Vardar
COMPOSER Kardeş Türküler
CAST Ms. Delila Kaya, Mr. Emircan Kaya, Mr. Şehmuz Demirtaş, Mr. Müfit Aytekin, + 36 local children of Mesopotamia
PRODUCTION Sarya Films