Country Focus on Turkey at DOK Leipzig 2016

Kurdish films also constitute part of the Special Programme

The Country Focus at this year’s edition of DOK Leipzig lies on Turkey. The film festival will be taking place from the 31st of October to the 6th of November. The films from Turkey take on a wide variety of artistic viewpoints as they illustrate the nation’s current political and social developments. The works deal with such themes as freedom of opinion, urbanisation and protest movements. Films by Kurdish directors shall also be an integral component of the Special Programme.

Remarking on the decision about this year’s Country Focus, Grit Lemke, the head of the film programme at DOK Leipzig, says: “The enormous audience interest literally overwhelmed us when we screened ‘Bakur/ North’ by Çayan Demirel and Ertuğrul Mavioğlu for the first time in Europe during the last edition of the festival, a documentary film that is banned in Turkey.

Apparently a large demand exists for depictions and stories that take a much closer look and gaze more deeply into the subjects than the reporting that reaches us as news bulletins from the region. The Turkish and Kurdish colleagues have created a prolific film culture under repressive conditions, a culture we are glad to explore.”

The programme for the Country Focus is going to be curated by Özge Calafato, a Turkish film expert.

In terms of its Official Selection and Special Programmes, the film festival running from the 31st of  October to the 6th of November is once again going to show a total of over 300 films. Leena Pasanen from Finland has directed DOK Leipzig since 2015. The most recent audience attendance figure rose to 48,000.