The three films presented in Kassel reflect the diversity of recent productions in both context and style. SALMAN WANTS TO GO tells the story of one among the hundreds of thousands of immigrants attempting to flee to Europe through Turkey, while RUINS TALKING BACK deals with the hidden ghosts of a genocidal past, and HERE TO STAY – shot in the style of an activist documentary – traces the aftermath faced by survivors of the devastating earthquake that struck southern Turkey three and a half years ago. Together, these three works span radically different registers – memory and testimony, urgent activism, and intimate personal narrative – yet each is rooted in the same impulse to bear witness to lives shaped by rupture and displacement. It is precisely this range, in form as much as in subject, that captures the vitality and relevance of contemporary Turkish documentary filmmaking today.
Salman is a Senegalese refugee living in Turkey. He dreams of moving to Europe, continuing his unfinished university life and supporting his family financially. During his time in Turkey, he works in different jobs and saves money to go to Europe. He makes several attempts to cross into Europe via Greece, but each time he is beaten and sent back to Turkey. Salman then disappears the day after the filming. While following Salman’s own text, the film unearths the memories he left behind with the help of the memories on his phone.… >>>
Architect and filmmaker Iklim Doğan undertakes a cultural-historical investigation, guided by a pressing political and personal interest: the search for an Armenia that has been transformed into memory. The narrative follows the railway lines that more than a century ago defined the routes of the deportations. Yet in today’s landscapes and cities, only the absence left behind by the disappeared remain. The traces of the past ultimately surface elsewhere: in the filmmaker’s family, in food, in music, in language.
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Premiere:
German Premiere
In a remote village Antakya in southern Turkey, 35-year-old Meryem begins the annual olive harvest. For generations, the groves have sustained the village women's livelihoods, but this year, the harvest takes place under a shadow of fear. Following a devastating earthquake that destroyed Meryem’s home, 60% of the village’s olive lands have been seized by the government to build a new satellite city. As the concrete edge presses steadily toward their remaining fields, this harvest may be their last. Interweaving Meryem’s video diaries with observational footage, the film moves between intimate scenes of the family harvest and the female-led resistance.
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Premiere:
Europe Premiere
