Turkish filmmaker Çayan Demirel and his journalist collaborator Ertuğrul Mavioğlu are currently facing trial and up to five years imprisonment related to charges of “disseminating propaganda in favor of a terrorist organization.” Their controversial documentary Bakur—which depicts a never-before-recorded side of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as it struggled through an arduous peace process with the Turkish government in 2013 and 2014—is at the center of trial. Turkey continues to regard the PKK as an active terrorist group, and feels it must prosecute any artist who dares depict it in his work.

Bakur, which means “North”, was shot over the course of several months in 2013 and required the production team to bring its equipment far into the hillside camps of Kurdistan (located in eastern Turkey). Professional film crews had never accessed these areas; Demirel and Mavioğlu had hoped to share personal stories and perspectives from PKK members and fighters in their documentary in order to allow audiences a deeper understanding of the long conflict.

The filmmakers were able to debut their documentary in 2015 at various international film festivals, to much acclaim. However, though it was initially approved for screening at the 34th International Istanbul Film Festival that year, organizers pulled it from the festival lineup at the last minute on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, citing missing official registration documents. Films at the the festival are submitted to the Ministry of Culture for said registration documents at the time they are chosen, and issuance of the documents is at the will of the Ministry itself—meaning the lack of documentation was the result of intentional censorship. Several other films screened at the 2015 festival without the required documents before Bakur was pulled from the lineup.

In response to Bakur’s initial censorship at the International Istanbul Film Festival, twenty-three other other directors withdrew their own submissions in protest, while the director of the festival and its jury all stepped down as well. The festival itself lost prominence and legitimacy, but the government was satisfied that Bakur would not be screened in Turkey.

Demirel and Mavioğlu escaped the attention of prosecutors for over two years, until the current charges were brought against them in 2017. In the environment of heightened censorship and suspicion following a failed 2016 coup attempt against the Erdoğan government, journalists, musicians and visual artists have been first to fall victim to outrageous accusations, but this case marks the first time that filmmakers in Turkey have seriously faced imprisonment for the content of their work.

The filmmakers appeared in front of the Batman 2nd Assize Court for the first time on May 29, 2018 to give their testimony and defenses. The case was adjourned to October 23, 2018 in order to allow the court time to further review their case.

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