Kazım Öz

Directing

Kazım Öz

Born January 1, 1973 · Tunceli, Turkey (age 53)

Kazım Öz is an awarded Kurdish director, scriptwriter, and producer. He started to produce art with Kurdish theater. In the 1990s, he continued to work with Yapım 13 Production Company which is affiliated with Mesopotamia Culture Center. His short film Ax (Land, 1999) received many awards in A-class film festivals. He shot his first feature film Photograph in 2002.

Known For

Mother ElifMother Elif · 2022
Mother Elif
5.52022
MovieDrama
Mother Elif is known to be philanthropic and wise. She shares deep spiritual values such as love, peace, equality, sharing, tolerance, and compassion with all life she comes into contact with. This film shows her eventful life.
ZerZer · 2017
Zer
6.22017
MovieDrama
Zer is the story of a song, whispered to Jan's ear on his grandmother's deathbed. A survivor of Dersim Massacre, Zarife hid her identity, her past in her memory of this song. Raised in NYC, Jan begins a journey through Kurdistan, searching for his grandma's past and his own self.
The LandThe Land · 1999
The Land
7.51999
MovieDramaWar
Revolving around an old man who refuses to leave his otherwise evacuated village in Kurdish Turkey, "Ax (The Land)" is a twenty-seven-minute long short film about the forced deportations of Kurdish villages by the Turkish military.
The StormThe Storm · 2008
The Storm
7.72008
MovieDrama
Cemal comes to Istanbul from a small Kurdish town after finishing high-school to pursue higher education. He feels isolated and out of place in the crowded city and soon meets a group Kurdish students who are against the repressive Turkish political system.
The Life of a SnowflakeThe Life of a Snowflake · 2022
The Life of a Snowflake
7.52022
MovieRomanceDrama
In Trabzon, snow falls heavily like never before in the last days of autumn, and the roads are blocked. In this setting, two people who attend the same school but have never met have a chance encounter at a bus station, waiting for the same bus that has run late. They fall in love at first sight.
The White SycamoreThe White Sycamore · 2016
The White Sycamore
5.02016
MovieDocumentary
The White Sycamore is a documentary that has a cultural aspect focusing on 'Zeynel Dede' (Zeynel Kahraman) who lives in a mountain village in Hozat/Dersim (a Kurdish city in the East part of Turkey), an extraordinary person, a master of music, instruments, lyric writing, stone masonry, wood shaping, animal breeding, beekeeping and also focusing on his very much talented children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Journey to the SunJourney to the Sun · 1999
Journey to the Sun
5.91999
MovieDrama
Mehmet, a young Turkish man newly migrated from Tire, takes a job searching for water leaks below the surface of the streets of Istanbul. Due to a strange set of events, he is mistaken for a Kurd, imprisoned, and brutally beaten. Upon his release, he becomes an outcast marked as a Kurd.
Oy'una GeldikOy'una Geldik · 2025
Oy'una Geldik
6.02025
MovieComedy
In the town of Ovacık, where the overwhelming majority are leftists, left-wing candidates and parties are unable to reach an agreement and end up running multiple candidates in the election, resulting in a right-wing candidate winning the mayoral election and attempting to govern the district for five years. Hıdır Diri, who wants to win the new election, mobilizes all his power to win the election through various schemes, including having his ultra-leftist nephew Şilan imprisoned so that he cannot run as a rival. A few days before the election, Şilan is released from prison and hitchhikes with a director, through whose eyes we see the workings of municipalities in Turkey, power relations, rent disputes, and how a people's vote is swayed in a colorful town like Ovacık, all told with a humorous tone.

Filmography

Sort
Oy'una GeldikOy'una Geldik · 2025
Oy'una Geldik
6.02025
MovieComedy
In the town of Ovacık, where the overwhelming majority are leftists, left-wing candidates and parties are unable to reach an agreement and end up running multiple candidates in the election, resulting in a right-wing candidate winning the mayoral election and attempting to govern the district for five years. Hıdır Diri, who wants to win the new election, mobilizes all his power to win the election through various schemes, including having his ultra-leftist nephew Şilan imprisoned so that he cannot run as a rival. A few days before the election, Şilan is released from prison and hitchhikes with a director, through whose eyes we see the workings of municipalities in Turkey, power relations, rent disputes, and how a people's vote is swayed in a colorful town like Ovacık, all told with a humorous tone.

Director