Clarisse Hahn questions the notion “of togetherness”. She is interested in social behaviours, with the conviction that openness towards otherness produces a powerful motivation to pay attention to one's own inner self. She observes communities and films their modes of cohesion in a relationship that favours intimacy over long periods of time. Relationships between people are represented with all of their ambivalency and contradictions. The observation of the body (the intimate or the social body) offers Clarisse Hahn the possibility of broaching complex realities through emotions and by capturing the invisible relationships between people and their environment.

With Kurdish Lover, Clarisse Hahn continues her documentary work on communities, the symbols of membership and the social role of the body. “This documentary is an intimate quest within the Kurd community. The story begins in Paris, as I was observing Kurdish men protesting bare-chested from my window. It continues with a journey to Kurdistan in the company of Oktay, the man of Kurdish origins that I fell in love with. In the course of our progressive ascent up to the summit of the mountains, we will meet guerillas, families who love each other jealously, gold diggers, bachelors, an old witch who casts spells, a holy man who enters a trance in front of a television, a hermit experiencing sexual withdrawals, a mute living in a ghost town, a shepherdess awaiting prince charming.

The characters of this film manage to find the energy to live and hope despite precarity and the muted transition from war, despite the weight of traditions. Throughout the film, we will see how each individual derives from their innermost resources the means of progressing day after day, to get the best – or worst – out of every moment.”

C.H.