[185] Motion Picture Director to Screen, Discuss Film At MTSU

FOR RELEASE: Nov. 22, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MOTION PICTURE DIRECTOR TO SCREEN, DISCUSS FILM AT MTSU
Director Miraz Bezar Depicts Agony of Turkish Kurds in “Before Your Eyes”

MURFREESBORO—Miraz Bezar, director of the internationally acclaimed motion picture “Min Dît: Before Your Eyes,” will screen his film at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of MTSU’s Business and Aerospace Building.

A question-and-answer session will follow the movie, and a reception is slated for after the question-and-answer period.

The 2009 movie traces the story of two young Kurdish children living in Diyarbakir, a town in the Kurdish region of Turkey. After witnessing the brutal death of their parents, the children are left to fend for themselves.

“Min Dît: Before Your Eyes” won the Youth Jury Prize at the 57th San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain, one of the world’s oldest film festivals. It also won three awards at the Istanbul International Film Festival in Turkey, including one for Best Director for Bezar, and the Special Jury Prizes at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey and the Ghent International Film Festival in Belgium.

A native of Ankara, Turkey, Bezar left his homeland for Germany in 1980 after a military coup. He studied cultural science at Berlin Humboldt University and started acting in theater groups. Bezar studied directing at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin, and his short films have been screened at festivals throughout the world.

This event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by MTSU’s Middle East Center with support from the Distinguished Lecture Fund and the Virginia Peck Trust.

For more information, contact Dr. Allen Hibbard, director of the Middle East Center, at 615-494-8809 or allen.hibbard@mtsu.edu.

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