This film looks at the lives of Kurdish political prisoners who have been through the brutality of the Turkish penal system - they speak about torture, hunger strikes and their present lives...
'Mehdi Zana, tortured to life' is the portrait of a man whose fate shows how difficult it is to be a Kurd in exile today. Mehdi was the first Kurdish mayor of Diyarbakir, Turkey. He was elected in 1977 and has been one of the main protagonists in the history of the Kurds over the past 30 years. His dramatic story illustrates the chaotic history of those years during which he never ceased to fight for recognition of his people's rights to exist.Today he has decided to give his account of how he was harassed, imprisoned and tortured by military governments and of the 11 year period he spent in Turkish jails. He is now a political refugee in Sweden, a long way from his friends and family. In spite of the suffering physical and psychological damage, he is trying to make a life for himself in a society which bears little ressemblance to his own.
'Discussion'
Guest Speakers: Doug Aubrey, Marie Olesen, Autonomi; Peri Ibrihim, journalist/filmmaker;
Mustafa Gundogdu, Kurdish Human Rights Project/Kurdish Film Festival, London
Filmmakers: Yusuf Yesiloz, Kudret Gunez