A Topography of Memory
2019, 30’, Turkish
Turkey
This subtly expansive new work by Burak Çevik (Belonging, ND/NF 2019) combines CCTV footage of urban Istanbul with audio of a family heading to vote in the controversial June 2015 Turkish general election. As talk ranges from domestic matters to political affiliations, shots of the city’s skyline, coastal architecture, and religious landmarks captured the day after the election slowly scroll past. Underlying these eerily serene images is the knowledge that in a follow-up vote five months later, the right-wing government would regain power.
[57th NYFF]
2019, 30’, Turkish
Turkey
This subtly expansive new work by Burak Çevik (Belonging, ND/NF 2019) combines CCTV footage of urban Istanbul with audio of a family heading to vote in the controversial June 2015 Turkish general election. As talk ranges from domestic matters to political affiliations, shots of the city’s skyline, coastal architecture, and religious landmarks captured the day after the election slowly scroll past. Underlying these eerily serene images is the knowledge that in a follow-up vote five months later, the right-wing government would regain power.
[57th NYFF]
Premiered at Locarno Film Festival then screened Toronto Film Festival’s Wavelenghts section & looped 2 days at 57th New York Film Festival’s Projections.
Various opinions, arguments, and hopes succeed one another in the time that separates the intention from the vote. Invisible to our eyes, this family becomes a symbol of a driving force in contrast to the impersonal images of the city’s surveillance cameras, which film everything but capture nothing. Who preserves a country’s memory?
—Daniela Persico
