Bûka Baranê - Trailer

2013 – 60 min. – Documentary – Colour – Turkish, Kurdish

Bûka Baranê, means The Bride of the Rain in Kurdish. It is the Kurdish phrase used for the rainbow.

The documentary, begins with a photograph of primary school children taken in 1989 in the courtyard of their school in the village of Befircan or Karlı, to use its given Turkish name, in the Yüksekova district of Hakkari province.

In a corner of the photograph it is possible to see the rainbow that comes out after every fall of rain in this region.

23 years after the photograph was taken, one of the students in the photograph (İrfan) returns to the village for the wedding of another student (Aysun). Most of the other class mates in the photograph will be at the wedding with the bride Aysun too.

As İrfan sets out on his journey towards the village, we also depart on a journey starting in 1989 with the 10 people in the photograph.

As part of the village’s recent history, we follow the emergency rule period and the establishment of the position of village guardianship. The village gradually becomes a frequent stop both for PKK militants and the soldiers of the Turkish army.

Detentions, oppression and beatings begin. They are followed by more and more young people of the village leaving for the mountains to join the PKK.

We begin to listen to the memoirs of the one-time students from their high-school and university years.

This documentary, focuses on the experiences of children at a village primary school in the '90s under war conditions and the oppressive environment brought on by war and their longing for peace.