A Defense

Synopsis

In 2015, hundreds of academics signed a petition in Turkey, asking the state to put an end to violence inflicted upon Kurdish people. Academics for Peace have been criminalized and put on trial with the charge of terrorist propaganda. A Defense portrays one of the Academics for Peace while preparing for her upcoming appearance in court in 2019. A psychodrama is put on stage in a house, where the person is both the state, the judge, the academic and the cook. It's a self-portrait on the violence and absurdity of the ways in which the state sneaks into the house of an academic, forcing her to adjust her words, body and gestures.

Directors' Biography

Aylin Kuryel is an independent filmmaker and an academic at the Literary and Cultural Analysis department at the University of Amsterdam. Among her documentaries are The Balcony and Our Dreams (2020), Cemile Sezgin (2020), Heads and Tails (2018), Welcome Lenin (2016), Taboo (2009). Her publications include Being Jewish in Turkey: A Dictionary of Experiences (Iletisim Press, 2017), Resistance and Aesthetics in the Age of Global Uprisings (Iletisim Press, 2015), Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas and Possibilities (Rodopi, 2010).