Dil Leyla

Leyla Imret is the mayor of the small town of Cizre, the heart of Kurdish resistance in Turkey. At just twenty-six, she is the youngest mayor in the country. What’s even more remarkable is that she hadn’t been back to her village since the age of five, when her father, a Kurdish guerilla fighter, was killed and she went to Germany to live with her aunt. When she returns home, her goal is to beautify the civil-war-torn city. But on the eve of Turkey’s parliamentary elections, everything changes.

Director's Biography
ASLI ÖZARSLAN, born in 1986 in Berlin, studied theater and media at the University of Bayreuth as well as philosophy and sociology at the Paris-Sorbonne University. Following her graduation in 2011, she worked in an editorial capacity on film projects for various TV networks. In 2012, she began her studies at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. Dil Leyla is Özarslan’s graduation film. // Films (selection): Insel 36 (2014, doc), Dil Leyla (2016, doc)
Competition Documentary 2017
Aslı Özarslan
Germany 2016
color
71 minutes
OV with English subtitles
Screenplay Aslı Özarslan
Cinematography Carina Neubohn, Aslı Özarslan
Editing Ana Branea
Sound/Sounddesign Jonathan Schorr, Aljoscha Haupt, Tom Schön, Nami Strack
With Leyla Imret
Producer(s) Igor Dovgal, Sabrina Proske (Essence Film, DE), Gudrun Hanke-El Ghomri (SWR, DE), Film Academy Baden-Württemberg (DE)
Production
Essence Film Wernerstraße 53 71636 Ludwigsburg Germany dovgal@essence-film.com www.essence-film.com
Austrian Premiere
Weltpremiere / World Premiere
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2016

Premierenstatus / Premiere Status
Austrian Premiere