1. Program
  2. /
  3. Film Series
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  5. THE GHOST ON BOARD / GEMIDEKI HAYALET
  6. /
  7. Big Man, Little Love: Hejar

Big Man, Little Love: Hejar

Handan İpekçi, Turkey/Hungary/Greece 2001, 120 Min. Min., OV with English subs
Followed by a talk with

Little Hejar, who lost her family to state violence in the Kurdish region, encounters a retired public prosecutor, Rıfat Bey. The relationship between Hejar and Rifat, who do not understand each other's languages, turns into a metaphor for the encounter between Turkishness and Kurdishness. Big Man, Little Love is an early example of a reflexive and critical view of Turkishness in relation to the Turkish-Kurdish question by using the possibilities of allegory and metaphorical expression. It’s a film which sees the relationship between Turkishness and Kurdishness as one of dominance and domination. Its awareness of Kurdish geopolitics as a colonial issue makes it an exception in Turkish cinema.