Before Your Eyes

Ten-year old Gulistan and her younger brother Firat live happily with their parents in Diyarbakir, the heart of Turkish Kurdistan. Tragedy strikes when their mother and father are shot down by paramilitary gunmen before their eyes. Traumatised and orphaned, Gulistan, Firat and their infant sister are placed in the care of their young, politically-active aunt Yekbun who soon disappears without a trace. As days turn into weeks, the money that their aunt left them runs out. Eventually, the children have to fend for themselves on the streets, where one day, Gulistan is shocked to come across the murderer of her parents.
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After their parents are murdered, two young Kurdish children are forced to live on the street.

Review by Ronan Doyle 4/5 stars

Aided considerably by a beautifully emotive score, writer/director/producer/editor Miraz Bezar’s political passion project following young siblings Gülîstan and Firat in the wake of their parents’ murder shines a light on the startling conditions of life in ‘90s Turkey. The strength of the two child actors at the centre of the film is remarkable, the wide-eyed innocence of Senay Orak as harrowing in its emotional effect as the quiet pain of Muhammed Al. Examining along the way everything from the threat of paramilitary forces to the problem of street prostitution, it diverges at times and loses sight of the emotional core which should remain constant throughout. Benefitting nonetheless from a sharp sense of comedy operating through a consistently morose and admirably fatalistic world view, this is a tragic but true tale of broken childhood; a fine testament to the plight of a generation.