Lisa Çalan

Lisa Çalan — Biography

Lisa Çalan is a Kurdish filmmaker from Diyarbakır who works as a director, screenwriter, actor and art director. A graduate of the Aram Tigran City Conservatory's film department, she worked at the Middle East Cinema Academy in Diyarbakır and took part in the crews and script work of several film festivals.

Her 2014 short film Zimanê Çîya (Language of the Mountains) addresses assimilation and the historical prohibition of the Kurdish language, while in 2015 she both served as art director and appeared as an actor in the film Vesarti (Confidential).

Çalan lost both of her legs in a bombing at an HDP rally in Diyarbakır on 5 June 2015. She spent the following two years living in Ankara, received treatment in Germany and underwent prosthetic surgery in Australia, and her request to join the criminal case as an intervening party was only granted after three years. She was later honored with the Spirit of Cinema award at the 26th International Film Festival of Kerala.