Star on the Border

A forbidden star, a border village, and the memory of repression.

Stêrka Li Ser Xetê (Star on the Border) revisits a little-known event that took place in March 1993 in the Kurdish village of Dirbesiyê, located near the Syrian border in Turkey’s Mardin province. During a military raid, soldiers forcibly entered homes to remove the star symbols decorating their window railings, claiming they represented the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). What began as a simple architectural motif was transformed into a mark of suspicion, exposing how deeply political tensions could invade private and domestic spaces.

Directed by Berîvan Saruhan, the film constructs a portrait of memory and resistance through the recollections of those who lived in Dirbesiyê at the time. It captures the emotional aftermath of the raid and the broader social changes imposed by decades of conflict along the Turkey-Syria frontier. The documentary explores how political repression and the threat of violence permeated daily existence, redefining notions of belonging, heritage, and cultural identity.

Through intimate testimonies and a restrained visual approach, Stêrka Li Ser Xetê becomes a meditation on how symbols, memory, and language endure in the face of erasure. Produced by the Hakikat Adalet Hafıza Merkezi (Truth Justice Memory Center), the film has been recognised with the Best Documentary Short Award at the Amsterdam Kurdish Film Festival in 2024, marking the debut of a powerful new voice in Kurdish documentary cinema.