MIASTO, KTÓRE WYJECHAŁO

Polish directing duo Grzegorz Piekarski and Natalia Pietsch spent six years researching and filming in Hasankeyf in eastern Turkey, building close relationships with the town's residents. In their quest for an authentic portrayal of resettlement and uprooting, they rely on visual storytelling rather than voice-overs or interviews to draw us into this world. With its unobtrusive observational style, their film combines images and dialogue to subtly question the Turkish mammoth project: is the flooding about technical and social progress or the eradication of Kurdish-Arab identity? Haunting, sombre scenes – old people dying of grief, families leaving the region, a child playing alone on an empty playground, the remaining hairdresser defiantly sweeping the pavement in front of his shop amid the ruins of demolition, the elaborate reconstruction of the centuries-old Zeynel Bey mausoleum – convey a sense of collective loss of identity. The monotonous grey of the new development stands in sharp contrast to the striking houses nestled in the mountains, which are now submerged in water, as is much of the village's cultural heritage. Hasankeyf was demolished along with 199 other locations to make way for the construction of the Ilisu Dam, one of 22 reservoirs in the Southeast Anatolia Project of Recep Tayyib Erdoğan's government, and flooded in 2020. While excursion boats now sail across the newly created lake and explain to tourists that they are currently above the remains of the ancient bridge of Hasankeyf, The Town that Drove Away accompanies some of the townspeople to their new home in New Hasankeyf. The houses here are more comfortable than down below, but the soul is missing, as is the view of the minaret. Loudspeaker announcements prohibit changes to the exterior of the buildings, which stand like tin soldiers on the barren slope. The changes affect not only the landscape and nature, but above all the core of the region's cultural identity.

Text: Mourad Touil

Tue 04.11. I 19:00 I KAMMERBÜHNE I original version with English subtitles + simultaneous German translation

Sat 08.11. I 16:30 I OBENKINO I original version with English subtitles