Zer is a movie released in 2017 and directed by

Kazim Öz Kazim Öz (born 1973 in Dersim) is a Kurdish film director, scriptwriter and producer. In 1992 he began acting at Teatra Jiyana Nû, while also working on movies. Early life and education Kazim Öz lived in the countryside in the Dersim region ...

. The film is about the experiences of a young Turkish musical student who gets to know his Kurdish grandmother as she comes to New York for treatment.

Plot

Jan is a student in musicology in New York and has a strained relationship with his father. His grandmother comes to New York to receive cancer treatment and Jan often visits her in the hospital. His grandmother sings him the song Zer and becomes captivated by its melody. After his grandmother died and Jan and his father attended the funeral in Turkey, Jan decides to stay and solve the mystery around the song. It leads him to a journey to the land of his ancestors and of what they experienced during the

Dersim Massacre The Dersim massacre, also known as Dersim genocide, was carried out by the Turkish military over the course of three operations in the Dersim Province (renamed Tunceli) against Kurdish rebels of Alevi faith, and civilians in 1937 and 1938. A ...

. In search of the origins of the song, he gets to know a

Dengbêj Dengbêj () is a Kurdish music genre sung by Dengbêj. Dengbêjs are singing storytellers. There have been many terms to describe Dengbêjs throughout history, but today Dengbêj is the best known, and also several singing storytellers use Dengb ...

singer and a rebel in the woods.

Production

First it received financing by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, but during the transcurse of the production, the support was withdrawn. The movie was filmed in New York, United States and also in the provinces of Istanbul,

Erzincan Erzincan (; ), historically Yerznka (), is the capital of Erzincan Province in eastern Turkey. Nearby cities include Erzurum, Sivas, Tunceli, Bingöl, Elazığ, Malatya, Gümüşhane, Bayburt, and Giresun. The city is majority Turkish Sunni w ...

Tunceli Tunceli (, , ) is a municipality (belde) in Tunceli District and capital of Tunceli Province, Turkey. The city has a Zaza majority. It had a population of 35,161 in 2021. Name During Ottoman times, the settlement was called ''Kalan'' or ''Ma ...

, Elazıg in Turkey.

Censorship

The movie received a certificate to be screened in Turkey by the Ministry of Culture in 2014. But in 2017, the Ministry requested scenes on the Dersim Massacre to be removed. The movie premiered at the 36th

İstanbul Film Festival Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With a population over , it is home to 18% of the population of Turkey. Istanbul is among the largest cities in Europe and in the ...

in April 2017 in a censored version which included blacked out frames for the duration of the relevant scenes covered with a message that the scenes were deemed inconvenient by the Ministry of Culture. Following, his certificate was annulled. Many movie theaters in Turkey cancelled the screenings, at the end only 11 movie theaters in Turkey showed the film.

Cast

Nik Xhelilaj Kreshnik Xhelilaj (born 5 March 1983), known professionally as Nik Xhelilaj, is an Albanian-born Turkish actor. He began his international career with the film The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider, directed by Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani, and has st ...

{{Citation, title=Zer, url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6123206/, access-date=2020-05-17 * Güler Ökten *

Füsun Demirel Füsun Demirel (born 13 June 1958) is a Turkish actress and interpreter. She played in Gülse Birsel's hit sitcom series Yalan Dünya ''Yalan Dünya'' ''(Fake World)'' is a Turkish TV series produced by Gülse Birsel and directed by Jale Atabe ...

* Haleigh Ciel * Levent Özdilek

References

Turkish drama films Kurdish-language films 2017 films 2010s Turkish-language films