A LETTER TO MY DAD
Type: Full-length documentary
Genre: Documentary
Year: 2020
Country: Netherlands, Iraqi Kurdistan
Language: Kurdish
Duration: 75 min
Production: IBRAHIM SELMAN
Director: Ibrahim Selman
Screenplay: Ibrahim Selman
Producers: Ibrahim Selman, Ahmed Zawiti
Operator: Muhammad Jano
IBRAHIM SELMAN
Ibrahim Selman was born in 1952 in Dohuk, Iraqi Kurdistan. He worked from 1972 to 1980 in Baghdad on Kurdish programs. In 1976, Selman earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Art in Acting in Baghdad. In 1980 he staged his solo performance "The Suffering of a Madman", in which he as a director, actor and screenwriter. In 1981 he moved to Holland, where he wrote and directed several theatrical productions, in which he also participates. Selman earned his doctorate from the Theater University of Amsterdam in 1985. He published two volumes of poetry and novels. Selman has directed about 80 short films, such as Think of an End to This Show (1978) and others. In 1994 he directed his debut full-length feature film “The Quiet Traveler”, and in 2008 - “Omet”.
ABOUT THE FILM
More than forty years after the death of his father, Kurdish writer and theatrical figure Ibrahim Selman writes a letter to him. In search of traces of his father, which may have been lost forever, Ibrahim tells him about his life and the life of the Kurdish people. In March 1975, when the Kurdish resistance was broken, Ibrahim immediately returned to Kurdistan. Upon arrival, he learns that his father died in December 1974 while fighting on the side of the Kurdish resistance. Ibrahim did not have time to say goodbye. Now he returns to where he grew up, hoping to find his father's grave and at the same time reads him a loving letter. "The dream of an independent Kurdistan has turned into a nightmare," Ibrahim says, "but the Kurds never give up hope."