“Şehir ve Mesih” (“The City and the Messiah”) und “Işığın Hasadı” (“Harvest of Light”)36th Turkish Film Festival Munich
Two documentaries that take viewers on a journey through Turkey’s history and right into the present day.
Two documentaries that take viewers on a journey through Turkey’s history and right into the present day.
Şehir ve Mesih ( The City and the Messiah)
Turkey 2024 | documentary | 30 minutes | English subtitles | directed by Aylin Kuryel and Raşel Meseri
An essayistic film about the 17th century Jewish rabbi Sabbatai Sevi, who declared himself the Messiah, gaining followers from İzmir to Jerusalem, Amsterdam and Cairo. The film invites you on a journey around Sevi’s restored birthplace in the Agora district of İzmir. A narrative unfolds around this fascinating figure that shines a light on events that were excluded from the history books, on urban legends and on the region’s complex past.
Işığın Hasadı (Harvest of Light)
Turkey 2024 | documentary | 52 minutes | English subtitles | directed by Esin Özalp Öztürk
The Evren district of Ankara is home to a community of seasonal workers who have come here with their families to work as harvesters on the onion fields. In this documentary, a generator that only produces light for two hours a day becomes a metaphorical symbol of hope in the families’ daily struggle to master life’s challenges. It is in those short hours that the workers tell their stories of arduous labour and their determination to take control of their lives.
