Film score for motion picture 'Walking' and its trailer

Friendship is something wonderful. Under ideal conditions it also develops, when obvious differences, e.g. in age, look or style, don’t let it show that two people are connected deep inside despite outward appearance.

“Walking” (“Mesh”), the Kurdish motion-picture from director Shiar Abdi, deals with such a friendship. The movie is set in the 1980’s, where Cengo (Abdullah Ado), a twelve year old boy and the odd, dumb and slightly mentally deranged Xelilo (Selamo) – a man living in an old garage and scuffing and striding up and down in front of the town hall day after day – slowly become friends. They spend more and more time with each other and with Cengo’s friends, as they unexpectedly are drawn into the tribulations of the Turkish take-over of power, which radically changes their lives and those of their families and friends.

The film score uses on the one hand Kurdish traditional Instruments like the Balaban (Mey), Saz, Ney or for example a violin played in a typically Kurdish style to set the local reference. On the other hand it uses string orchestra, piano, percussions, synthetic elements and much more to establish a contemporary character, beyond Kurdish folklore. So a very organic film score came into being, which consists partially of purely traditional Kurdish elements, less often of exclusively contemporary “classical” film score elements, but mostly of a combination of both worlds.

A Part of the film score results from an eminently delightful collaboration with Hemin Derya, a music producer and instrumentalist of Kurdish origin, who composed and arranged a new version of “Welat”, a traditional Kurdish folk song, which is very popular and much-loved by the Kurdish people.

The movie starts in Turkish cinemas on April 1^st, 2011, and participates in the competition of the 30th International Istanbul Film Festival.