Song of My Mother

Song of My Mother is a Kurdish film about the homesickness of an old woman, Nigar, and her life as an immigrant in Istanbul. Despite all her son’s efforts, Istanbul is turning into a nightmare for Nigar, who was forcibly displaced from her village. Simultaneous to Nigar's homesickness, her son Ali is desperately trying to establish a life in Istanbul. Ali works both in a public state school as well teaching Kurdish to students at a private institution, turning the character into another example of a Kurdish subjectivity that is divided between Turkishness and Kurdishness. The film makes visible that the Turkish-Kurdish issue is expanding by including Istanbul as a diasporic place for the Kurds.