Zer (film)

Zer is a movie released in 2017 and directed by Kazim Öz. The film is about the experiences of a young Turkish musical student who gets to know his Kurdish grandmother as she comes to New York for treatment.

Kazim Öz at of screening of Zer

Plot

Jan is a student in musicology in New York and has a strained relationship with his father. His grandmother comes to New York to receive cancer treatment and Jan often visits her in the hospital. His grandmother sings him the song Zer[1] and becomes captivated by its melody. After his grandmother died and Jan and his father attended the funeral in Turkey, Jan decides to stay and solve the mystery around the song. It leads him to a journey to the land of his ancestors and of what they experienced during the Dersim Massacre. In search of the origins of the song, he gets to know a Dengbêj singer and a rebel in the woods.

Production

First it received financing by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, but during the transcurse of the production, the support was withdrawn.[2] The movie was filmed in New York, United States and also in the provinces of Istanbul, Erzincan, Tunceli, Elazıg in Turkey.[3]

Censorship

The movie received a certificate to be screened in Turkey by the Ministry of Culture in 2014.[4] But in 2017, the Ministry requested scenes on the Dersim Massacre to be removed.[4] The movie premiered at the 36th İstanbul Film Festival in April 2017 in a censored version which included blacked out frames for the duration of the relevant scenes covered with a message that the scenes were deemed inconvenient by the Ministry of Culture.[5] Following, his certificate was annulled.[4] Many movie theaters in Turkey cancelled the screenings, at the end only 11 movie theaters in Turkey showed the film.[5]

Cast

References
  1. "Zer: A film by Kazım Öz". Department of Near Eastern Studies. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  2. "The wizardry of Oz: In conversation with director Kazim Oz". www.rudaw.net. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  3. "Kazım Öz on Zer". East European Film Bulletin. 2018-01-07. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  4. Kayas, Nilüfer (2017-06-26). "Turkish filmmakers fear the spectre of censorship". Financial Times. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  5. "Dealing with Art Censorship in Turkey: The Case of Kazım Öz's film Zer". www.seismopolite.com. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  6. Zer, retrieved 2020-05-17
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