Eight months have passed since the February earthquakes struck south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria. In the centrally located Affan neighbourhood in the city of Antakya on the border of Turkey and Syria, where the earthquakes have had devastating effects, Erkan stands amidst the rubble with his close relatives and surveys the damage. On one side is his father, who left the neighbourhood to study in London in the 1970s and has returned only for brief visits ever-since. On the other side is his aunt, who never left Affan even after her home was destroyed. Passing through the same streets on different days with either his father or aunt by his side, Erkan invites the audience to witness the stories of his family and their neighbours and learn about their experiences since the earthquakes.

“Devastated by my own families’ losses in the 2023 earthquakes, I have turned to filmmaking and visual archiving as a manner with which to sociologically explore the realities of living in a post-disaster context, emphasising on the humanitarian impact that such disasters can have particularly when combined with governmental stagnancy and political ambivalence in the contemporary Republic of Turkey” (Erkan Gürsel)

This screening will be followed by a discussion between the filmmaker Erkan Gürsel and one of the films protagonists Cemil Gürsel, hosted by documentary filmmaker Sheida Kiran.