Ali Biçer
Poet, journalist, filmmaker, and innkeeper
Country of origin:
Switzerland
Ali Biçer (*1960), an Alevi born in a Kurdish village in Central Anatolia, is a writer, journalist, filmmaker and host. Since the age of 15 he has campaigned for democracy and freedom and has spent 15 years in Turkish prisons. As a man condemned to death he experienced what life feels like in its fragility, finiteness and limitedness to a few square meters. He has lived in Switzerland since his discharge from prison. So far, he has published several volumes of poetry, stories and plays in Turkish. In Bern he runs a restaurant at the cross-cultural meeting point Länggasse.