Two films explore the narratives of resistance, longing and the pursuit of a better future in the context of the multigenerational and multi-coalition demands of the Gezi Park Uprising.

Witnessing Gezi
Dir. Emin Özmen, 2013, Turkey 2013, 17 min.
UK PREMIERE

Witnessing Gezi takes us on a gripping journey through the lens of photojournalist Emin Özmen, who documented the protests against the urban development plan for Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park. This crucial event in recent Turkish history ignited a nationwide resistance movement. Through Özmen’s recorded footage, the film offers a deeply human perspective on the civil resistance that unfolded.

Drifting
Dir. Somnur Vardar, Turkey 2022, 67 min.
UK PREMIERE

Drifting examines a dust-filled city cleansed of its identity and memories as it becomes estranged from its own skies and sea. Meanwhile, the ‘distant silhouettes’ on the construction sites become characters in their own right: characters who, in their dorms at night, give voice to their longing for home, anxieties about the future and sense of physical exhaustion at such a young age. In this giant construction site of a city, we get to know Ferhat, a teacher from Mardin who can’t get a job, and his cousin Emrah, who aspires to become a teacher. Both of their fathers and grandfathers were construction workers.