Kurdish "White Mercenary" screened in Curitiba film festival
28/06/2012 11:26SULI, June 28 (AKnews)- The Kurdish documentary "I'm a White Mercenary" was screened in the international Curitiba film festival in Brazil last night.
The film, directed by Taha Kareemi, narrates the events of Anfal campaign in the Garmiyan area and features Saeed Jaf, who is widely known as a mercenary for Saddam Hussein regime, especially during the Anfal process.
In 1988 nearly 182,000 Kurds from this area and the rest of Iraqi Kurdistan region were taken to southern and central Iraqi provinces to be executed and buried in mass graves.
This is the last film by Kareemi which is shot in Garmiyan, the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, said Hawre Kareemi, films' press secretary.
Kareemi said the documentary which led to an uproar in Kurdistan is being screened in the international festivals and will be awarded.
The Kurdish documentary was chosen along 65 other films from a total of 3,500 works from 15 countries, said a statement by film distributor Setak Film Company.
In an interview with Alpaha website, the filmmaker expands on the reasons for making the film.
He said for the first time he saw the name Saeed Jaf in a weekly Kurdish magazine. The case was interesting for him and he began working on it.
Kareemi told Alpah "during my research, I realized that Jaf was a well-known personality. Everyone knows about him in the smaller towns in Kurdistan. When I met with Jaf and saw 20 DVDs of witness testimonials, I realized that he must have been innocent.
"I remember Jaf saying 'Right now I feel that I'm at the bottom of a deep well and nobody can hear my voice. I'm going to be caught in the quagmire of working as a mercenary for the Iraqi Ba'ath party. Please help the world hear my voice. Let them all hear my voice and then come to a clear conclusion and then judge me."
The first screening of the film was at the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai in April this year.
By Kamaran Kareem
LL/AKnews
