Kae Bahar
Will the Kurdish dream of independence and freedom ever become reality?With the rise of ISIS and the central role played by the Kurdish Peshmerga in the fight against them, the question of Kurdish independence has taken on greater urgency. To answer this pressing question, Kurdish author Kae Bahar travels from his London home to his rocky and mountainous homeland, finding a complex mix of Kurdish nationalism and internal division. ‘War or Peace?’ Bahar asks. The answer is not so simple.
It was 30 years ago that 14 year old Karzan Sherabayani was arrested and tortured by Saddam Hussein's secret police, his only crime being that he was a Kurd. After 25 years in exile, Karzan, now a British citizen, has returned to his childhood home to vote in Iraq's first democratic election. Having been banished for so long, Karzan now asks the people of Kirkuk if they accept the path promoted by the West...a path that will inevitably lead to a divided Iraq or a bloody civil war. In this incredible documentary, Karzan exposes a city that sits on one of the world's largest oil deposits as a place where old ethnic and sectarian divisions are still rife. Kirkuk, he says, is a microcosm of the new Iraq. During the year it took to make the program, Karzan confronted old demons from his past and met with the heroes and villains who are fashioning the country's dangerous and uncertain future
A quirky motorcycle adventure in Iraqi Kurdistan with the 'Long Way Round' cameraman Claudio von Planta and his fellow biker friend Billy Ward (Biketruck) and supported by the Kurdish filmmakers Kae Bahar and Miran Dizayee.
