A meditation on loss, language and the will to live, A Farewell to Freedom is a fast-paced tableau exploring the intricacies of Kurdish identity in a violent, changing world and the day-to-day realities of life during a fascist coup.
Ahmet is a Kurdish student in a small village in Turkey. With the help of his sister, he and like-minded young people set up a library and begin reading literature and philosophy. They perform political plays in their forbidden native tongue. When tragedy besets their families and their village, they are forced into exile. In another life on the streets of Istanbul, the world tests the resolve and ethics of a precocious gangster and aspiring novelist named Ahmet. His losses, loves, and riches amount, but are followed by betrayal, gunfire, and heartbreak upon discovering the maltreatment of his daughter.
An end-to-end song of freedom from the tradition of a culture that encourages us to defend it with the weapon of understanding. — Zoé Valdés, author of The Weeping Woman and Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada
