Director suspected of KCK probe released

Şeyda Aydemir ISTANBUL / Radikal

Director Mizgin Müjde Arslan was allegedly detained due to a trip she took to northern Iraq to shoot a movie. Hürriyet photo

Authorities have released two directors who were detained by police Feb. 13 in connection with the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) probe due to a trip they took to northern Iraq to shoot a movie subsidized by the Culture Ministry.

Director Mizgin Müjde Arslan and photography director Özay Şahin were released after being detained for traveling to northern Iraq to create the film “Lost Grave,” which chronicles Arslan’s journey to the Kurdish-controlled area to locate his father’s grave after receiving news of his death.

The movie, which is based on the director’s personal experiences, received 10,000 Turkish Liras from the Culture Ministry in 2010 for “script development” after Arslan filed an application for support.

“Lost Grave” details Arslan’s journey into the Makhmour Refugee Camp in northern Iraq, which is home to thousands of Kurdish refugees from Turkey, to search for traces of his father. Arslan’s father joined the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 1982, one year after Arslan’s birth. The director then sets forth to find the grave of the father he never knew.

A copy of the film’s rough-cut was presented to the prosecutor who remained unconvinced the two suspects’ trip to Iraq was solely motivated by their efforts to shoot the movie, according to reports.

Arslan is currently working to get his Ph.D. at Istanbul’s Bahçeşehir University in the Cinema and Media Studies Department and decided to shoot a feature-length film years after learning of his father’s death.

The KCK is the alleged urban wing of the PKK, which is recognized as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.