Bakur

Bakur (full title: Bir Gerilla Belgeseli: Bakur — "Bakur" means "north" in Kurdish) is a 92-minute political documentary from 2015, co-directed by Çayan Demirel and Ertuğrul Mavioğlu and shot in Turkish and Kurdish. Described as the first work to openly bring PKK members' activities into Turkey's public sphere, it follows the daily lives of militants in three camps in Diyarbakır, Tunceli and Cizre. The narrative opens with Abdullah Öcalan's call for withdrawal, read at the Diyarbakır Newroz gathering on 21 March 2013, and records the camp residents' reactions to the process.

The film screened at numerous international festivals, including Stockholm, Montreal, Visions du Réel and Kathmandu. Its slot at the 34th Istanbul Film Festival was cancelled after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism demanded registration certificates for domestic films, prompting an open letter from over a hundred artists denouncing censorship. In 2017 both directors were prosecuted on charges of "terrorist propaganda."