Kobanê had been besieged by ISIS in September 2014 and its citizens, united in People and Women’s Defense Units (YPG and YPJ) since the war in Syria began, in 2011, fought bravely for 4 months and managed to free their city under the eyes of the whole world, absolutely terrorized by the Islamic State. To the entire world these Kurdish women and men and the city of Kobanê became the symbol of the liberation from the darkness of the Islamic State.
Rodi Hesen and Perwin Hemo were married for 20 days when, on 25th of June 2015, five months after Kobanê had been liberated were killed by ISIS mercenaries inside their house together with other 9 members of Rodi’s family. In total that day, ISIS killed 388 people.
Rodi and Perwin had dreamed, after Kobanê was liberated, of opening a Kurdish library in the ground floor of the Hesen family’s house.
The Hesen family had already lost one girl, Shirin, in 2013. She had gone to the front to defend her city, and the father of the family who was killed when a bomb exploded in November 2013.
The three survivors of the family, Rodi’s brother Ednan and sisters Cihan and Berivan, decided to open their family house again and to make Rodi and Perwin’s dream come true.
Original Title: Tevî Her Tiştî
International Title: Despite Everything
Director: Ararat Suveyda, Sherwan Bilal Youssef
Original Language: Kurdish
Production Country and Year: Northern and Eastern Syria Federation-Rojava, 2021
Duration: 51’
Production: Rê
Director of Photography: Ararat Suveyda
Editing: Yaser Saleh
Music: Yado Uzun
The Directors
Ararat Suveyda was born in 1975 in Konya. He studied at the Faculty of Communication, Radio-Television-Cinema department in Istanbul. He worked with Ronahi TV in 2011 in Aleppo and in 2012 in Afrin. From 2013 to 2015, he worked with Ronahi TV work while also working on documentaries in Kobane. In 2017-2019 he worked with Çıra TV in Shengal.
Currently, he is working in with a documentary production team in Qamishlo.
Sherwan Bilal Youssef was born in Afrin and graduated in Arabic literature from the University of Aleppo. He is one of the founders of Radio Kobane, the radio station born during the siege of the city by the Islamic State from September 2014 to January 2015. He worked at Ronahi TV and is the author of several documentaries. He is the founder of the North Press Agency, for which he currently works.
