Come to My Voice

“Poor Berfe,” a man remarks after hearing just one of the many sorrows the elderly Kurdish grandmother has endured during her lifetime. At present, Berfe and her young granddaughter Jiyan are in pursuit of a gun. But their intentions are to save, not end, a life. Turkish soldiers recently imprisoned Berfe’s adult son Temo upon the mere suspicion he was harboring contraband weapons. In order to rescue Temo, Jiyan and Berfe must surrender at least one gun to the military officials. First, Jiyan desperately collects all the toy guns in the village. And then Berfe offers the soldiers her father’s old shotgun. Yet, both attempts are equally futile. And so the grandmother and granddaughter traverse the expansive and picturesque Turkish countryside—marred by numerous military checkpoints—in a seemingly hopeless search for weapons. In COME TO MY VOICE, filmmaker Huseyin Karabey considers how generations of downtrodden Kurds face adversity amidst increasingly violent surroundings. (In Turkish and Kurdish with subtitles) – E.B.