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Part of the Spring 2017 Film Series: Young Lives: Against the Odds
Location: Manuel Pacheco Integrated Learning Center (ILC), Room 150, 1500 E. University Blvd
From the Variety review:
An extraordinary performance by a 10-year- old girl anchors "The Children of Diyarbakir," the debut feature of Miraz Bezar. Set in the predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, the pic takesa straightforward, non-sensationalized approach to the tragic story of a brother and sister orphaned when their parents are assassinated by a secret-services paramilitary officer. Though it shows its first-feature origins, the film has moments, especially toward the end, that so transcend the material as to make the journey doubly worthwhile.
...Bezar's ability to hold back ... allows this street-orphan tale to rise above the usual treatment of the subject. Bezar ... keeps the kids as real as possible without turning them into merely cute sympathy magnets; he also reveals a city in all its multiple facets, from dying neighborhoods to leafy residential sections where the privileged live, unmoved by or apathetic toward Kurdish repression.
