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Movies: Best Movies in Kurdish(Zimanê Kurdî)

Kurdish (Kurdî, کوردی) is a group of languages, or a single language, spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish varieties constitute a dialect continuum, and many of these varieties are not mutually intelligible, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. The main three dialects or languages of Kurdish are Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji), Central Kurdish (Sorani), and Southern Kurdish (Xwarîn). A separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages, the Zaza–Gorani languages, are also spoken by several million ethnic Kurds. The majority of the Kurds speak Kurmanji, and most Kurdish texts are written in Kurmanji and Sorani. Kurmanji is written in the Hawar alphabet, a derivation of the Latin script, and Sorani is written in the Sorani alphabet, a derivation of Arabic script. The classification of Laki as a dialect of Southern Kurdish or as a fourth language under Kurdish is a matter of debate, but the differences between Laki and other Southern Kurdish dialects are minimal. The literary output in Kurdish was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century, when more general literature became developed. Today, the two principal written Kurdish dialects are Kurmanji and Sorani. S... ()

Kurdish is spoken in Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Syria, Turkmenistan and Iraq and 139 movies (between 1992 and 2024) with this language have been recorded so far. Most of these movies were shot in Iraq (55). Popular genres for Kurdish movies are Drama (67), Documentary (43) and War (15). Up & Away (2012), Get Off (2019), #73 (2015), Pîrebok (2022) and Khabur (2023) are among the best known & most successful Kurdish movies.

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135 movies found (page 1/5):

Up & Away(2012)

1h 37min | Drama
3.8/5 (with 49 votes)

Two shoeshiner homeless brothers named Zana (7) and Dana (10) live on the edge of survival. They catch a glimpse of Superman through a hole in the wall at the local cinema and decide that they want to go to America in order to meet Superman.

Directed by Karzan Kader

North(2015)

1h 32min | Documentary, War
3.6/5 (with 3 votes)

Bakur (North) is a documentary that invites its audience to reflect on a war that has been continuing for decades and gives an insightful look on its main subject, the PKK. The film follows the lives of the guerilla in three different camps on the Kurdish region (north) that lies within Turkish borders.

Directed by Çayan Demirel, Ertuğrul Mavioğlu

Half Moon(2007)

1h 48min | Music, Drama, Comedy
3.2/5 (with 12 votes)

Mamo, an old and legendary Kurdish musician living in Iran, plans to give one final concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. After seven months of trying to get a permit and rounding up his ten sons, he sets out for the long and troublesome journey in a derelict bus, denying a recurring vision of his own death at half moon. Halfway the party halts at a small village to pick up female singer Hesho, which will only add to the difficulty of the undertaking, as it is forbidden for Iranian women to sing in public, let alone in the company of men. But Mamo is determined to carry through, if not for the gullible antics of the bus driver.

Directed by Bahman Ghobadi - With Golshifteh Farahani, Hedieh Tehrani, Hassan Pourshirazi

My Sweet Pepper Land(2014)

NC-17
| 1h 40min | Drama
3.6/5 (with 38 votes)

Baran, a war hero, becomes sheriff of the capital and refuses to bow down to a tribal chief.

Directed by Huner Saleem - With Golshifteh Farahani, Korkmaz Arslan

Whisper with the Wind(2009)

1h 17min | Drama
4.0/5 (with 2 votes)

An elderly radio-operator travels across Kurdestan in the war-torn 80s assuring communication between lost families.

Directed by Shahram Alidi - With Maryam Boubani

The Classic(2016)

1h 35min | Drama
1.3/5 (with 2 votes)

Two Kurdish little people in Iraq risk their lives to fulfill their dreams and that is to meet football hero Cristiano Ronaldo.

Directed by Halkawt Mustafa

What the Wind Took Away(2017)

1h 15min | Documentary

"We, the Yazidis, became doves. Doves without wings", says Hedil. Stranded with her family in a Yazidi refugee camp in Eastern Turkey, she reminisces about her former life in Northern Iraq and recounts the horrors of her escape. The film follows two families' attempts at normality in an otherwise miserable place. (ML)

Love in the Time of Corona(2024)

Comedy, Romance / Love, Drama

The movie follows Kurdistan during the Covid-19 crisis in 2019, and how it ruined relationships between loved ones.

Saddam's Mass Graves(2004)

1h | Documentary

The documentary depicts the suffering of the Kurds and Iraqis under Saddam's regime through dozens of testimonies by survivors of Saddam's Anfal campaign on the Kurds and by Shia Arabs in the south of the country, as well as with US/UK coalition officials, forensics experts and human rights representatives, The documentary reveals 330 mass grave sites that had been uncovered throughout Iraq, containing as many as 300,000 bodies.

Gênco(2017)

1h 20min
1.3/5 (with 1 vote)

The film is about a limited-superhero who wants to change the world with daily, weird and funny works.

Tired(2010)

1h 30min
2.3/5 (with 1 vote)

It's 2004, and the news that Saddam Hussein has died sends shock waves through the Middle East. Shaho is the son of an elderly man of Iranian Kurdish heritage; the old man's health is failing him after suffering a stroke, and he's convinced he doesn't have long to live. Shaho, his father and their family have been living in an Iraqi refugee camp for a while, but with the passing of Saddam, Shaho believes the time is right for them to return to Iran, where father can spend his last days in the land of his birth. However, as Shaho is making plans for the trip back to Iran, his cousin Sheelan visits the family for the first time in twenty years; her parents fled to Sweden when she was a child, where she's now a physician, and she wants her dying uncle to join her there where he'll be safe and well cared for.

Directed by Ebrahim Saeedi

Memories on Stone(2014)

1h 37min | Drama
2.9/5 (with 2 votes)

Kurdish childhood friends Hussein and Alan direct and produce a film about the genocide of Kurdish people in Iraq, the Anfal campaign in 1988. They learn that, to achieve veracity by the means of cinema and to face their own identity, it's worth putting everything on the line - even their own life.

Directed by Shawkat Amin Korki
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Bad Hunter(2013)

14min | Comedy, Drama
3.4/5 (with 2 votes)

Young man Bahoz goes hunting in rural Kurdistan. He witnesses the rape of a young woman by an older man. He chases the man away and helps the woman to mend her clothes so she can conceal the rape from her family. That evening, Bahoz receives an unexpected visit...

Life on the Border(2015)

1h 13min | Documentary
4.5/5 (with 1 vote)

The fate of thousands of people is unified under the tarpaulins of the refugee camps in Kobanê and in Shingal. Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi has given eight children the opportunity to use a camera to tell their own stories. Each film gives us a glimpse into the plight of the children, as seen through their own eyes. Their stories tell of young people with their whole lives ahead of them, though they’ve already lost almost everything. At a certain point, the film crew leaves the camp and follows the 13-year-old Mahmod and his sister in the search for his parent‘s house in Kobanê. The town has been ravaged by the war and all the children find is rubble. The eight films reveal the courage and openness of the young filmmakers, who share their stories with great intensity, realism and poetry, despite their harsh fate.

Silent(2012)

14min | Drama
3.1/5 (with 8 votes)

A woman tries to give a pair of shoes to her husband, who is in prison. The story takes place in Diyarbakır, Turkey in 1984 after the military coup in 1980, where the only language allowed to be spoken in prison is Turkish. The film won “Palme D’or” for short film in Cannes Film Festival 2012.

Directed by L. Rezan Yeşilbaş - With Belçim Bilgin, Cem Bender

Commander Arian(2018)

1h 17min | Documentary
3.3/5 (with 1 vote)

On the front line of the Syrian war, a 30-year-old commander leads her female battalion to retake an ISIS-controlled city and emerges severely wounded, forcing her to redefine herself in this empowering tale of emancipation and freedom.

Directed by Alba Sotorra i Clua

One Candle, Two Candles...(2014)

1h 45min | Comedy, Drama, Kids & Family

Young Viyan, is forcibly given to wealthy elder businessman, Haji Hemmo. When she runs out of the bedroom and climbs a tree, refusing to sleep with him, the respected elder looses face and becomes the laughing-stock of the town. In return, he punishes her by beating her and locking her up in the bedroom. The more the townsfolk mock him the harder he beats her. Meanwhile, a traveling young artist, Botan tries to reach out to her. This leads to Haji Hemmo's resolve to set her on fire.

Directed by Jano Rosebiani

Bread(2008)

30min | Drama
2.5/5 (with 1 vote)

Sahim Omar Kalifa's graduating Film.

Radio Kobanî(2016)

1h 10min | Documentary
3.1/5 (with 2 votes)

The extraordinary story of a young reporter in war-torn Kobanî.

He bû tune bû(2014)

1h 21min

Every year, a Kurdish family leaves Gaziantep (Anatolia) to work on the land near Ankara. This thankless life of seasonal labor turns upside down when the eldest son falls in love.

Resistance Is Life(2017)

1h 13min | Documentary, War
3.5/5 (with 4 votes)

Eight-year-old Evlin characterizes the resilience of Kobane's resistance against ISIS forces through her experience in a refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border.

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Bekas(2010)

28min | Drama, Kids & Family
2.7/5 (with 5 votes)

Two homeless Kurdish brothers see Superman in the town's first movie theatre and decide they are going to live with him in the US. It's a long, dangerous road in the hands of ruthless human smugglers.

The Agony of a People(2007)

1h 40min | Drama, History
1.9/5 (with 2 votes)

Sulaymaniah, Iraqi Kurdistan, in the 1940s. When his wife Kaleh goes into labor, her husband Jwamer runs to get the midwife. By ill luck, he runs into the middle of a political demonstration and is seriously wounded and arrested by mistake as the ringleader. After a rigged trial, Jwamer is sentenced to ten years in prison. He serves his sentence and, as soon as he is set free, goes in search of his wife and child.

Directed by Jamil Rostami

Red Heart(2012)

1h 17min | Drama
2.8/5 (with 3 votes)

The teenagers Shirin and Soran are in love and want to marry, but Shirin's father has arranged her marriage and forbids them. On her wedding night, Soran kidnaps her for them to be together.

Directed by Halkawt Mustafa

Winterland(2007)

52min | Drama, Comedy
3.3/5 (with 3 votes)

Kurdish refugee, Renas, is living in the very north of Norway. In a remote desolate house. In the middle of snowy nowhere. But soon his special princess, Fermesk, will be joining him. Though the couple has never met, they have already fallen in love from looking at each other's photographs and talking on the phone. Their families have performed a wedding ceremony back home in Iraq, and Fermesk is put on a plane. The first encounter at the airport does not live up to their expectations, however. Neither looks very much like their flattering photos would indicate. Fermesk is now a much bigger woman, and Renas isn't quite the handsome young man anymore.

Directed by Hisham Zaman - With Raouf Saraj

Crossing the Dust(2006)

1h 13min | Drama
2.9/5 (with 2 votes)

A road movie set in Iraq in 2003 during the fall of Saddam. Two Kurds are looking for the parents of a five-year-old boy who has been found in the street in tears. His name is Saddam too. At the same time the boy's parents are looking for him everywhere, worried because of the boy's name which is now taboo. All the attempts of the two Kurds to get rid of the child fail: neither the Americans nor the men of religion at the mosque want him. Little Saddam begins to become a real problem. In the streets and all around them, they are surrounded by the chaos and crazy atmosphere of those days, with violence always on the verge of exploding.

Directed by Shawkat Amin Korki

Father(2006)

15min | Drama
3.3/5 (with 3 votes)

Two Kurdish refugees from Iraq, a father and his son are on the run. With hope for a better life for his son, the father is forced to make a challenging sacrifice to provide for him.

Directed by Hisham Zaman

1001 Apples(2013)

1h 14min | Documentary

In 1988 the Iraqi Ba'ath party murdered and buried 182,000 Kurds in 350 mass graves. Only 10 people managed to escape. Faraj climbed out from amongst the dead and was taken to the USA by 'Human Rights Watch'. Realizing that few people were aware of the genocidal 'Anfal' massacres, Faraj formed the 'Iraqi Mass Graves Survivors' group. He returned to Kurdistan where, with four other survivors, he bought 1001 red apples and cloves and distributed them to families who had lost members. These apples and cloves became symbols of reconciliation and peace.

Ice Cream(2014)

16min
3.3/5 (with 3 votes)

Rojhat (11) has been living with his mother in a small village of Van. One day, an ice cream seller comes to village with his motorcycle. All children of village surround the ice cream seller. They all buy ice cream in exchange for eggs, copper wires, old objects they have brought from their houses.

Dol: The Valley of Tambourines(2007)

1h 30min | Drama
4.0/5 (with 1 vote)

On his wedding day, a Kurdish man must flee through Turkish, then Iraqi and eventually Iranian Kurdistan.

Directed by Huner Saleem - With Belçim Bilgin, Ciwan Haco
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