A Kurdish-Finnish doctor uncovers a family secret that challenges everything she thought she knew in Turkish director Erol Mintaş‘ second feature, Earth Song. The film promises a timely story of family, memory, reconciliation, and personal discovery across generations and borders.
Mintaş’ debut feature, Song of My Mother, a story set among Kurds living in Istanbul, won the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2014. Earth Song is set to world premiere in the Harbour section of the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on Jan. 30.
Dilan Gwyn stars as Rojîn, a Kurdish woman who has been living in Finland almost all of her life. The 40-year-old anaesthesiologist has devoted her life to humanitarian work, often at the cost of her family. No surprise that her relationship with her 12-year-old daughter Azad (Zenan Tünc) is increasingly strained, and marital life with her husband Ferhat Feyyaz Duman) is tense.
But now, the family’s complicated past is cropping up. Azad doesn’t know that she’s adopted, and Rojîn struggles with how to tell her. When Rojîn’s father Nizam (Ali Seçkiner Alıcı) visits from Sweden, Rojin finds out that she doesn’t know the full story about her past either. In fact, her father reveals a secret that he has kept since the military coup in Türkiye in September 1980. Determined to understand her origins and reconnect with Azad, Rojîn travels to Kurdistan.
The festival website describes Earth Song as “a resonant drama reflecting on the Kurdish experience of dispossession and exile.” Its title is inspired by the poem An Earth Song by Langston Hughes, which is about renewal.
Mintaş shares: “Given its historical background, one might assume that this film mainly concerns Kurdish and Turkish people. But for me, the film also addresses Finland and Europe, offering them hermeneutic tools that might, hopefully, help them understand what has shaped these people, who are now also part of the society in these places.”
Concludes the director: “Issues related to the Finnish, Kurdish, and Turkish contexts layer on top of one another, but ultimately I always tried to stay with the characters – their journeys, their needs, and the things they are trying to understand about themselves.”
Earth Song was produced by Mete Sasioglu and Mintaş for Finnish production outlet Sons of Lumière, in co-production with Anna Blom for Jamedia Production in Finland and Tanja Georgieva-Waldhauer for Elemag Pictures in Germany.
“Earth Song is the story of a family spanning three generations, all on a journey toward truth and reconciliation,” highlights Sasioglu. “The film emphasizes the importance of telling the truth, even when it is very difficult, and the responsibilities we have toward one another – responsibilities we must be willing to accept.” Concludes the producer: “I hope and believe that the family portrayed in the film will offer an opportunity for reflection to people all over the world, regardless of language, culture, or geographical location.”
THR can exclusively reveal the trailer for Earth Song, which teases some of the family secrets that may need to be addressed and family ties that need repairing. Plus, it invites viewers to go on a cinematic journey of hard truths and reconciliation.
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