Simurgh is the story of 6 real characters (political prisoners) who had participated in death fasts in order to protest the F-type cell system in 1996 in prisons of Turkey and caught the Wernicke Korsakoff illness after 69 days on death fast, then released due to health problems and now trying to cope with speech difficulty, loss of muscle coordination, balance problems, amnesia and hazy consciousness. In 2000, the second death fast action begins and these six former activists come together once more. The film tells, through these characters, in real time and sites, those second death fasts, which continued for nearly 7 years and had left behind 122 people died, and tries to bring light to the dark areas of a painful 14-year period.—Anonymous
Refik, Cafer, Cigdem, Huseyin Muharrem, Ali Ekber and Delil took part in the death fast action in order to protest the F-type cell system in 1996. They caught the Wernicke-Korsakoff illness after 69 days on death fast. They now try to cope with speech difficulty, loss of muscle coordination, balance problems, amnesia and hazy consciousness. When the second death fast action begins in 2000, these six former activists come together once more.Old friends meet at the grave of Idil Erkmen, who lost her life in the action four years ago (the first woman prisoner died fasting unto death in the world). Afterwards, they and their families spend the subsequent week all together. They recall the memories of the past and try to support the ongoing resistance at the same time.Meanwhile, a critical point was reached in the death fasts. On the 18th of December, six friends visit a group of resistants who started fasting unto-death in Kuçukarmutlu. There they meet Senay Hanoglu, Zehra Kulaksiz, Gulsuman Donmez (who were to die a couple of months later) and their friends. The meeting gives an impression as if we were in a time tunnel; on one side, former resistants who joined the first action and deeply wounded as a result of it, and on the other side the new resistants who throw themselves into the front even though they know that they would either die or become disabled.The next day after this visit, the "Return to Life" operation was launched in the prisons. Six friends watch the news regarding the operation and make comments on the events. Demoralized because of the develepments, they throw themselves into the streets of Istanbul and speak up against this massacre. The horror of massacre leads an outbreak among the families of prisoners.After the operation,10 years pass... Cafer, Ali Ekber and Çigdem now live abroad, while Huseyin Muharrem, Refik and Delil are still in Istanbul. The views of the city indicate that a lot of things have changed during the years past. But the wounds of the past are still waiting to be cured for the film's characters.
