The Heavy Burden
Yılmaz Özdil (Turkey)
Col / 17' 00" / In Kurdish and Turkish with English subtitles
To support his family, Avdel works for the Municipal Council with his donkey Bozo in providing sanitary services in Mardin, Turkey. His nephew Salih who fled Syria stays with him. When the “old Bozo” is retired by the municipality, Avdel must find a young donkey to keep his job. To help his uncle, Salih needs to cross the Syrian border to bring back his own donkey which he had to leave behind before because of the war. In order to accomplish this mission, he has to cross the minefields.
Artist’s Statement
The story of my film takes place in Mardin, Turkey, which has a 120 km border with Syria. Through the tragic story of a Kurdish family torn between Turkey and Syria, my short film talks about the irony of the visible and invisible borders in the Middle East. Rather than seeking answers to the concept of border, I want to show that for the victims of the war, the visible border never indicates a line of demarcation between “life” and “death”.
