Dark Waters

An artist-filmmaker is engaged in the ambitious project of creating an architecture and art farm on his ancestral lands in Eastern Turkey. He confronts an array of challenges, including the unforgiving forces of nature, the intricate dynamics of the local community, and the complexities inherent in traditional architectural construction methods.

Eleven-year-old Yekta lives in a crumbling island mansion with her strict aunts and ailing grandfather, yearning for her absent mother. As dreams and surreal visions shape her solitude, she sets out in search of a mythical seagull with a child’s head.

Lola is part of “The Migrant Workers”, a Turkish drag queen troupe who perform to great acclaim. Lola’s gay little brother Murat, on the other hand, is just beginning his search for an identity. An intense family drama set in “Anatolian” Berlin-Kreuzberg.

In a small village, young Mert is about to get traditionally circumcised, but the family does not have the money to follow up with the circumcision celebration. The family wants to be able to serve lamb meat to the guests at the celebration. Mert’s older sister scares him that if they cannot afford a lamb the father will slaughter him instead.

After Turkey’s february 1997 military intervention, Hilal and Fatma left their town to study at university in Istanbul. Feza lives downstairs in their lodgings, has fled as village where was cruelly bullied for being a transgender woman. Hilal chooses to help Feza and Fatma.

Escaping from their dysfunctional families, Behiye and Handan become best friends. Their euphoria will soon be replaced by regrets and eventual betrayal as class differences resurface.

Set in a remote village in the Erizincan province in Eastern Turkey, it’s the tale of four villagers’ quest to travel to the moon during a period in the late 1950s when Turkey’s villages were being encouraged to modernise.

This film documents Kutlug Ataman's artistic production in a retrospective approach and elucidates his works with his own words and with commentaries by curators, art institution directors, art historians and critics who are familiar with his production through close collaboration, to witness the construction of an impressive artistic production spanning 15 years. The film also includes the excerpts from the artworks and the installation footages of their realization.