Kuma (Kuma)
Contemporary World Cinema
Umut Dağ / Feature Narrative / Austria / 2012 / 93 min / Colour / DCP
In German, Turkish / Arabic, English subtitles
Interests: Drama
MENA Premiere
Synopsis
Kurdish Austrian director Umut Daǧ’s first feature film is a wonderfully accomplished, passionately acted, intense study of love, trust and family obligation – and the terrible results of negotiating these in bad faith. When the matriarch of a Turkish Austrian family becomes ill, her solution to the problem of her expected demise is to arrange a marriage to ensure her family’s wellbeing. However, the new bride’s presence in the close-knit immigrant Muslim family generates unexpected animosity among the younger family members, and exposes things everyone would prefer remain hidden. When events take a shocking, dramatic turn, the tangle of the family’s secrets and lies threatens to tear them apart. A brave and moving look at the complications and generational challenges faced by immigrant families as they attempt to maintain their traditional values while living in a European world of unfamiliar social norms.
About the Directors
Born in Vienna as the oldest child of Kurdish immigrants, Umut Dağ studied business but gravitated towards the film industry, working on commercials and as a production assistant, then going on to study directing at the Vienna Film Academy. Short films include ‘Ende der Kindheit’ (2005), ‘Schatten’ (2007), ‘Todesnachrichten’ (2008) and ‘Papa’, which was named Best Austrian Short film at the 2011 Diagonale.
Credits
- Director
- Umut Dağ
- Screenwriter
- Petra Ladinigg
- Producer
- Veit Heiduschka, Michael Katz, Wega Film
- Editor
- Claudia Linzer
- Cinematographer
- Carsten Thiele
- Sound
- Sergey Martynyuk
- Cast
- Nihal Koldaş, Begüm Akkaya, Vedat Erincin, Murathan Muslu, Alev Irmak