The Last Season: Shawaks

For the film, Öz accompanied the tribe for the duration of one year with a translator. The film was pre-purchased by the German-French television network arte and counted with funding by the Dutch documentary agency. == Synopsis ==

The film describes the nomadic lives of the Shawak (also spelled Shekak) a community comprising about 3500 people living in 15 villages in the Dersim region. The film does not have many spoken passages and the few are predominantly in Kurdish. == Screenings ==

The film was acclaimed by the documentary film community and premiered at the Swiss Visions du Réel in Nyon, a prominent film festival for the documentary film. It received the International Jury award of the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg, where it competed as the only documentary film in the segment international feature film. it was not included in the prestigious Golden Orange Film Festival in Antalya, one of the most prominent ones in Turkey. It was condemned as censorship by Kazim Öz and the Mesopotamia Center. They jointly released a statement accusing the festival of excluding an international successful film which depicts a reality contradicting the official discourse. == References ==