The Beekeeper

Monday, June 16, 2014

Dir. in person! NY premiere!

THE BEEKEEPER relates the touching story of Ibrahim Gezer, a Kurdish beekeeper from southeast Turkey, and his unusual experience of integration into the seemingly conservative heart of today’s Switzerland. The turmoil of the decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the armed Kurdish guerrilla movement, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), robbed Gezer of everything that he had: his wife, two of his children, his country, and over 500 bee colonies—his means of making a living. He has been left only with his love for bees and his unshakeable faith in humanity. Displaced from his home and livelihood, the beekeeper discovers a new life in Switzerland.

Human Rights Watch has in several reports documented the Turkish military’s forcible displacement of Kurds and evacuation of thousands of villages in southeast Turkey in the 1990s, as well as the enforced disappearance and killings of thousands of Kurds. For many years there was no justice for these crimes in Turkey, although over the past few years there have been a few prosecutions of the military in a few of the thousands of cases. Human Rights Watch continues to press for accountability for past abuses as a key element in a peace process and to uphold the human rights of Kurds in Turkey.

Part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2014

• Country Switzerland
• Rating NR
• Running Time 107 minutes
• Director Mano Khalil

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.