Representation and narration of the disaster in Kurdistan cinema with an emphasis on selected works of contemporary Iranian filmmakers - working title of the documentary film (Pir Mohammad)

Academic Thesis in Master Degree in Cinema

Abstract:

Claiming to portray or express and narrate the disaster, especially in the contemporary era after the wars and bloody massacres and the Baathist genocides during the Halabja (1988) and Anfal (1988) operations, has always been the focus of Kurdish filmmakers. Reviewing the memories of war survivors through the fictional and documentary works of these filmmakers is a new chapter in the history of these people after the disaster. The films One Thousand and One Apples, All My Mothers and Zamzeme Ba Bad are the works of Kurdish directors who have tried to narrate the lives of people after the disaster through monologues, images, schizoid and disjointed narratives. In this article, an attempt has been made to explain the thematic structure and narratology of these works in the narration of a film about the Anfal disaster.

Keywords:

     Narrative, disaster, isolated situation, narrative expression, the subject of guilt, non-language

Introduction

This research is an attempt to study the "condition of contemporary man and people who have suffered a disaster", as seen in contemporary cinema. Iran has been represented. The analysis of Kurdistan's cinematographic works in expressing this situation has been given attention in the second chapter by presenting the opinions of thinkers such as Paul Ricoeur, Hannah Arendt, George Agamben, Primo Levy and Richard Corney. Discussions about the topic of the disaster and how to narrate it have been discussed, and in the next chapter, we will introduce the research method of this thesis. Researches conducted in the field of cinema sociology indicate that most of the methods and techniques used to collect and analyze data in this field are qualitative methods. Due to the relevance of the topic and research objectives, the qualitative method of "narrative semiotic analysis" is used. Here, in addition to explaining the epistemology that governs this method, these films are examined and analyzed based on the method of semiotic narrative analysis. Christian Metz's semiotics model is emphasized as a methodological framework in the narrative analysis of films, and the statistical population, sample size and sampling method will also be introduced, as well as the thematic analysis because the thematic context governs the film and the filmmaker has built his narrative and thematic plot within its framework. Taha Karimi, "All My Mothers" (1386) by Ebrahim Saeedi and Zahavi Sanjawi, "Whisper to the Wind" (1387) by Shahram Alidi should be chosen in such a way that they shed the most light on the theory developed up to that moment.

                                     Chapter One

                 . Man, especially modern man, under the fierce attacks of the modern age, technology and new ideologies, has been crushed more than ever before by what Giddens calls the crushing wheel. In the meantime, under the influence of the repressive policies of the Baath government, the modern Kurdish man has been strongly embraced by what can be called a disaster experience. The "Chemical Bombing of Halabja" on March 16, 1988, in which 5,000 people were killed, and the "Anfal" incident, in which 4,000 Kurdish villages in Iraqi Kurdistan were destroyed, and 182,000 Kurds were buried alive by the Baathist forces on April 14, 1988, are examples of this disaster experience. These experiences have been among the most basic subjects that have always encouraged writers and artists to play a significant role in conveying and representing the experience of disaster. These two genocides in Iraqi Kurdistan have motivated filmmakers from Iran, Iraq, Syria and even filmmakers from Europe to represent and narrate these tragedies. Among these works, we can mention the films: "The Bride of Halabcha" (1369) directed by Hassan Karbakhsh, "Avinar" (1370) directed by Shahram Esadi and "I'll Walk After My Feet" (1385) directed by Alan Amin, which tried to represent the tragedy of Halabja.. Many films have been made about the tragedy of Anfal, such as: "Anfal" (1384) directed by Manu Khalil (one of the Syrian Kurdish filmmakers), "Zamme ba Bad" (1387) directed by Shahram Alidi, "All My Mothers" (1386) directed by Ebrahim Saidi and Zahavi Sanjawi, "Kolajo, my heart darkened" (1386) directed by Helena Apio (known filmmaker) He pointed out "Khaste" (1387) directed by Ebrahim Saeedi and the film "Mazdoor Sefid" (1391) and the film "A Thousand and One Apples" (1392) both directed by Taha Karimi.

Ibrahim Saeedi, Shahram Alidi and Taha Karimi are three Iranian filmmakers who have made works about the Anfal incident. Therefore, among the works of the aforementioned filmmakers, three films "Whisper in the Wind" (1387) by Shahram Alidi, "All My Mothers" (1386) by Ebrahim Saeedi and Zahavi Sanjawi, and "A Thousand and One Apples" (1392) by Taha Karimi have been selected for research. 

Paul Ricoeur, in the book Time and Anecdote, considers the issue of time as important in the understanding of action and addresses the principle that narration is not possible without time and, consequently, without the understanding of action (Ricoure, 2003). On the other hand, Sigmund Freud, in a research titled Mourning and Makholia, deals with the psychological relationship of the Makholia person and his departure from the temporal order, and he believes that the Makholia person keeps himself in the present time in order to preserve the lost subject and is not willing to pass this time, or in other words, Freud believes that the Makholia person steps out of the temporal order and forgets the relationship between the past, present and future in favor of the past until the present, and from this point of view, Time becomes a complication that hinders the linguistic and metaphorical ability of the language so that the macholy person is incapable of self-representation (Freud, 2012). Bringing this issue together, which means the failure of the narrative at the end of time, along with the falling out of the catastrophe and macholia, is a new issue that Samuel Beckett and Maurice Blanchot refer to under the title of "catastrophe writing" and the formation of a new narrative with the title "Namtext". This issue of how and with what resources the person who witnessed the disaster narrates himself is the basis of the research and statement of the problem that we will deal with here.

1-2: Hypothesis

Our hypothesis in this research is based on the fact that the narration of the text of the disaster in a universal, general and integrated way is not possible, but it is always a schizoid, fragmented and fragmentary narrative, which is especially mentioned in the works of the aforementioned filmmakers as the narrative of the human tragedy of Anfal.

3-1: Research questions

How were Shahram Alidi, Ebrahim Saeedi and Taha Karimi able to represent the disaster in their cinema works?

What symbols did Shahram Alidi, Ebrahim Saeedi and Taha Karimi use to represent the disaster? Is it?

1-4: The importance and necessity of research

It can be important to pay attention to the investigation of the disaster in cinema in this sense, how the cinema gives a narrative of the disaster and the lives of the people and the survivors of the disaster according to the filmic elements and the themes and signs of the film. In this article, an attempt is made to examine the importance of this issue in the structure of the three films One Thousand and One Apples, All My Mothers, and Zamzeme Ba Bad. This research tries to depict the reconstruction of the disaster in people's lives after the disaster and the narration of the dying people from the point of view of the movies. 

1-5: Research Objectives

The basic and general purpose of this research is a semantic interpretation of the representation of disaster as the most basic element that modern man is still struggling with. Modern man, despite all the promises of enlightenment dependent on the yard full of goodness and virtue, is still vital and disastrous. The semantic interpretation of the disaster in Kurdistan cinema is a way to understand the disaster and its representation according to the art of cinema. 1-6: Background of the research Most of the research related to this position in Iran is devoted to the issue of war and death. War can be the cause of disaster, of course, the eight-year period of holy defense was not free of human disasters, for example, we can mention the chemical bombing of Sardasht and even the martyrdom of every person in this war, which can be considered as a disaster, and the issue of death, which has a consistent relationship with the issue of disaster, can be considered as a research background.