The Town That Drove Away

Hasankeyf, a Kurdish town with a thousand-year-old history, is going to drown. The construction of the Ilısu dam is nearly complete, and the Turkish government plans to relocate all inhabitants to New Hasankeyf, a bleak new town of identical concrete blocks. We observe how tourist agencies advertise diving adventures while the last residents watch as centuries-old monuments are dismantled and shipped away. Loudspeakers announce the relocation schedule while electricity is cut and the water level slowly rises – a political power play captured in precisely framed images.