The Silent Revolution (2013)

In Afrin, a rural town in the north of Syria, the Kurds are preparing to celebrate the arrival of springtime and their new year, a celebration with markedly strong aspects of national identity. This year, though, the festivity will be celebrated in a special context. The country has been caught up in a civil war for the last two years, and the Kurdish minority in Syria -unwilling to side with either the government forces or the rebels- has seized this window of opportunity to take power in the areas where they reside, and restore and reclaim their culture which has survived almost fifty years of oppression. Ali Ali, a 70-year-old chemist, explains why he has decided to go back to teaching Kurdish in a school which until recently taught only Arabic. A young journalist, Cudi Efrin, explains how the new Kurdish TV channel has been set up. A 30 year-old woman, Gulizar Hesen, shows us her new life as member of the Kurdish militia and as a mother at the same time. We also followed Beko Serin, the lead vocalist of the Aria Gruo who performed traditional Kurdish songs in public for the first time at the Newroz celebrations. Finally, Abu Saido, a member of the Democratic Movement of the West Kurdistan, spoke of the creation of new political structures necessary for the running of this region; all in all, a plural and direct range of views on the silent revolution of the Kurds in Syria.