2013 EU Human Rights Film Days

The 3rd EU Human Rights Film Days will be organised in 8 different cities all around Turkey on 6-15 December 2013 with the support of the European Union Delegation to Turkey, the EU Member States and their cultural centres on the occasion of 10 December, Human Rights Day.  

Students, human rights advocates, film-lovers and everybody who is interested are invited to watch films and documentaries on human rights, free of charge at theatres in Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Bursa, Eskişehir, Trabzon, Sinop and Diyarbakır.

The event is organised by the European Union Delegation to Turkey in cooperation with the representations and cultural centres of the EU Member States, and will cover eight cities in Turkey. During the festival that will last 10 days, more than 20 films from Europe and Turkey will be shown free of charge.

The event will take start at Kızılay Büyülü Fener cinema at 19:00 hours on Tuesday 10 December. Following the opening ceremony, documentary MY CHILD (Benim Çocuğum) directed by Can Candan, in which parents whose children are LGBT share their individual experiences, will be shown.  Reha Erdem’s last movie JİN, Ali Aydın’s first film MOLD (Küf), which received Lion of the Future Award at Venice Film Festival can also be viewed at the Human Rights Film Days.

The festival does not forget the young cinema lovers. The children will be able to watch ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL / OKUL YOLUNDA with Turkish dubbing. The film was shown at the famous “Piazza Grande” (which can accommodate an audience of up to 10,000, possibly the largest open air film theatre in the world) and was met with vigorous applause at the Locarno Film Festival. Making its debut in Turkey within the context of the festival, the film tells the extraordinary story of four children from different countries of the world and their struggle to be able to go to school.            

Through the event, producers, actors, actresses, and directors of some films will come together with the audience. Sociologist Olivier Peyroux will meet with the audience after the projection of the documentary Le Terrain (Arazi) in İzmir on 6 December, in Ankara on 9 December and in Diyarbakır on 10 December. Peyroux will join debates on vital issues such as human smuggling and Roma people, who are marginalised and have become the topic of heated debates recently, particularly in Europe.   

During the event, films from Turkey and the EU covering fundamental rights and freedoms we share despite different ethnic roots, classes, gender, sexual orientation or political disposition are shown. The event targets creation of a new and common consciousness and awareness while encouraging the audience to ask questions on different issues such as human rights, individual identity, human dignity and intercultural dialogue.         

For more information about the Human Rights Film Days please visit www.avrupa.info.tr

The films which will be shown at the 3rd EU Human Rights Film Days are as follows: