Whispering Memories / Talking Pictures

Ararat whispers from Tehran

2010-07-26T01:03:00.001-07:00

"Politicians divided countries and priests divided the church" says Father Sarkissian, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the heart of Tehran. It is my second visit to the Iranian capital after almost 10 years. In 2001, I was filming just outside St.Sarkis without even knowing this was an Armenian church. Now, I am sipping on bitter Lebanese coffee while Father Sarkissian tells me about his first ever visit to Turkey in 1976. He tells about their challenging journey through eastern Anatolia and those troublesome years in Turkey, only four years before the Turkish military took over a democratic government in 1980. Father Sarkissian visited his forefather's nation with a small group of young clerics. On their journey, they visited former Armenian towns and villages and came across some 'good and bad people' who offered them traditional Anatolian hospitality but there were also others who reported them to local military police with the accusation of looking after hidden Armenian gold.

I ask Father Sarkissian if he has ever been back to Turkey after the 70's. "Yes, I did!", he says and continues, "My last trip was in 2005 and I saw a very different Turkey with more democratic progress and an ever evolving civil society." Father Sarkissian and I talk about the importance of dialogue between Armenians and Turks as peace can only be achieved when people really listen to each other's stories. While he praises our documentary films "Whispering Memories & Talking Pictures", I start taking his photographs and look at beautiful religious artwork in his room. Outside his office in the garden, I also come across the small Genocide Memorial, on which carnations are laid regularly to eternalise those who lost their lives in 1915 and beyond. Above the small memorial, a giant wall painting is dominating my camera's lens; it is the portrait of Imam Khomeini, the revolutionary Shia cleric who along with millions of his followers toppled the last Iranian Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi and installed a fundamental Islamic state in Iran in 1979.

Nowadays, around 75,000 Armenians live in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Most Armenians were settled here about 400 years ago by Shah Abbas of Persia. A rather small number of Armenians surviving 1915 also arrived here and lived in Iran happily thereafter. "Persians treat us very nicely and we enjoy great cultural and religious rights in Iran" says my host Raffi Piroomian. This is the message I keep hearing from every Armenian in Tehran yet the same problems facing most Persians are also affecting them. Iran suffers on severe economic crisis, unemployment is high among the young population, the democratic development is blocked by the current government and even Christian women have to wear the hejab, the Islamic veil.

Strolling through the crowded city of Tehran, I realise how similar it is to the Turkish capital with it's 1970's architecture. The city is populated by approximately 15 million people and the giant Persian metropolis stretches from the mountainous North to its rather poor and conservative South from which the current President Ahmadinejad receives most of his votes. Yet Tehran is a city painted in variations of beautiful beige with some interesting political and social street art. Persians have a long history of beautiful illustrations, one of the Arabic alphabet's most brilliant calligraphy and other artwork.

Driving to Tehran's northern districts, giant housing complexes and skyscrapers dominate the skyline. Iran is one of the most opposed to US' global domination such as Venezuela. Most large urban construction projects such as the cities' Metro transportation network are being undertaken with partnership of Chinese companies and supplies. Towards late afternoon, the streets are filled with cars, traffic barely moves and people line up on the queue for shuttle taxis taking them home. I witness a large number of ladies in the streets who obviously just left their offices. It is a sign of what an important role women play in the Persian society. They are dressed in fashionable clothes and Western brand scarfs barely cover two thirds of their hair.powerful economies in the region; it has got immense oil and gas reserves and it established successful economic and political partnerships with Russia, China and other countries. The veil is an obligation for mostPersian ladies and their fashion style is a clear opposition to the government's dominating policies towards women's civil dress codes.

Taking a right from Vanak square, we reach Ararat Cultural Centre in the north of Tehran. Surrounded by high walls, it houses a cultural complex for various events and a series of sports facilities. The area could easily house five to six football fields. Established in 1954, it's been home to social and sports events to Tehran's large Armenian community. It is a safe haven especially for Armenian women where they can take down their veil and socialise freely. Ararat is also where Armenian youth is being educated about their history. An Iranian Armenian friend who nowadays lives in Los Angeles tells me that Ararat is the cultural centre where he learnt swimming and it is also where he became 'an Armenian'.

We walk across the football field and reach the southern tip of Ararat where Whispering Memories and Talking Pictures will be shown to an Armenian/Persian audience. This is our third screening to the Armenian diaspora and it is certainly one of the most interesting ones. I am being greeted with extraordinary warmth, hospitality and sincerity, and the event organisation is certainly the best one I've ever come across. About 400 hundred guests arrive at the screening venue among which also many Persians are present and I have the great opportunity to meet interesting personalities. One of them is the ambassador of Armenia to Tehran.

Each first encounter with a new person on my multi-cultural journeys requires a quick inquiry about the common language we could speak. I greet Ambassador Grigor Arakelyan shortly with "Barev" in Armenian and then we continue our communication in

English. However, Mr.Ambassador tries to speak with me in Turkish and I understand that he is a Turkophone. There can be various reasons why an Armenian in the diaspora speaks fluent Turkish. It can be simply because of the fact that some diaspora communities speak Turkish in their homes or some of them learn Turkish for professional reasons. Mr.Ambassador explains to me that he is an Iranian Armenian from Tabriz, where he learnt Torki, which is the Azeri spoken in Iran (a related Turkic dialect to modern Turkish). I continue the conversation with my Azerbaijani language skills, which I mastered in Baku, just across the border from Tabriz. He says that Armenians and Azeris continue good neighbourly relations in Iran. He speaks with the poetic Iranian Azeri to me and we enjoy each other's company. Our conversation finishes again by highlighting the significance of dialogue between Armenians and Turks. Ambassador Arakelyan says that politically we may not reach peace at the moment but people should definitely talk to each other.

While approximately 400 guests watch "Whispering Memories & Talking Pictures" with Persian subtitles, I take a back seat and watch the crowd. Father Sarkissian, head of Armenian Apostolic Church in Iran leans over on the table and he watches both documentaries in silence. Ambassador Arakelyan whispers to his wife occasionally and then he becomes silent again. "The story of Armenian converts in Turkey" is a new subject for Iranian Armenians yet they easily establish empathy with various elements of our documentaries. The village wedding in the Taurus mountains brings them to laughter at times yet many of them weep silently while they watch Ghazaros Kerjilian's journey to his father village in "Talking Pictures". Leaving one's homeland is a well-known theme in a community such as Iran's Armenians whose members still leave the country slowly for a new life abroad.

I greet the audience in a brief Armenian and Persian note and then continue with a short highlight about the names of both documentaries. While our first documentary whispers, the second one talks without any fear or hesitance. I try telling them that Turkey too changed in the last couple of years and sensitive

subjects such as 1915 or the story of Muslim Armenians can nowadays be told and discussed in public. Father Sarkissian delivery a rather long speech and presents a very negative portrait of Turkey; he becomes a real politician in public. He does not prefer to mention the importance of dialogue but only fosters the same old image of Turkey in the minds of the Armenian community. Some of my Armenian neighbors around the table look at him with a slight irony. I remember the bitter taste of Lebanese coffee I enjoyed that same morning and remember his lines...

"Politicians divided countries and priests divided the church", Father Sarkissian told me that same morning. With deep uncertainty about who divides who in our modern days, I get into thoughts worrying me about the chronic state of Turks and Armenians. Are we all doomed to remain loyal to our stereotypes such as 'the murderer Turk' and 'the Betrayer Armenian?' What could someone do who believes in dialogue and the establishment of individual friendships between 'enemies'. Can we start believing in each other's sorrow and truth without a single human contact and still remember what divided us at the turn of the 20th century? Are we going to stop talking about 'The Other' and start thinking about what we can do individually?..

Before my return, my dear friends Loosin, Raffi, Nairi and Sasoon take me to a beautiful "Sofrahana", an open-air restaurant where we enjoyed each other's company and talked about the event and many other things. As we people-watch and gossip about our neighbors, we discover that there is so much we do not know about each other. Our conversation changes from 1915, genocide, mass murder and politics to pop music, cinema, food, traveling and our closely related languages. I leave Tehran with an open invitation to my Armenian friends to Bolis, Istanbul and make them promise they really do so in the near future.

Mehmet Binay / Filmmaker

"Whispering Memories & Talking Pictures" co-director

25 July 2010

Talking Pictures / Whispering Memories in Tehran

2010-07-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Whispering Memories and Talking Pictures will be screened on 22 July 2010 in Tehran at the Armenian Cultural Centre Ararat.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Atatürk Havaalanı,Istanbul,Turkey

Whispering Memories in The Economist

2010-03-12T17:33:00.000-08:00

Turks and Armenians

The cost of reconstruction

Mar 11th 2010 | ISTANBUL
From The Economist print edition

It takes many hands to reconcile two peoples so divided by history

FOR centuries, a stone bridge spanning the emerald green waters of the Akhurian River connected the southern Caucasus to the Anatolian plains: a strategic pivot on the Silk Road, running through the ancient Armenian kingdom of Ani. Today the bridge would have linked tiny, landlocked Armenia to Turkey. But war and natural disasters have reduced it to a pair of stubs—a sad commentary on the relations between the two states.
This grim image prompted an Ankara-based think-tank, called Tepav, to devise a plan to rebuild the bridge and in so doing to reopen the long-sealed land border by stealth. “The idea is to promote reconciliation through cross-border tourism,” explains Tepav’s director, Guven Sak. Turkey’s doveish president, Abdullah Gul, has embraced the plan. The Armenian authorities and diaspora Armenians with deep pockets are also interested. If all went to plan, the bridge’s restoration would only be the start of a broader effort to repair hundreds of other Armenian architectural treasures scattered across Turkey.
This semi-official stamp on a relationship in the absence of diplomatic ties (foreseen in an accord signed last October, but yet to materialise) would be a first. Yet academics, artists and journalists are striking peace on their own terms. Hardly a day passes without Turks and Armenians hobnobbing at a reconciliation event.
It is a tricky business because true reconciliation means confronting the ghosts of the past. For decades Turkey denied the mass extermination of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915. Under Turkey’s draconian penal code, anyone who dares to describe the Armenian tragedy as a genocide can end up in jail or even dead. In 2007 an ultra-nationalist teenager murdered Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish editor who often wrote about the genocide. Although Ogun Samast pulled the trigger it is widely assumed that rogue security officials from the “deep state” gave him the gun.
Dink’s death was a turning point. More than 100,000 Turks of all stripes showed up at his funeral bearing placards that read: “We are all Armenians.” Indeed if the murder was intended to stifle debate it had the reverse effect. A growing number of Turks are uttering the g-word. Ugur Umit Ungor, a young Turkish academic is one of them. His research aims to show how many Young Turk cadres involved in the massacres continued to thrive after the republic was founded in 1923.
Others allude to history in more subtle ways. Take Mehmet Binay, a Turkish film director. His documentary “Whispering Memories” tells the story of ethnic Armenians in a village called Geben, who embraced Islam (presumably to avoid death at the hands of Ottoman forces). Sobs were heard during a recent screening of the film in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital.
Although today’s inhabitants of Geben hesitate to call themselves Armenians, a growing number of “crypto-Armenians” (people forced to change identity) do just that. Their stories were collected and recently published by Fethiye Cetin, a Turkish human-rights lawyer, whose grandmother revealed her own Armenian roots shortly before her death.
Meanwhile, an army of humble if accidental Armenian ambassadors are helping to melt the ice. Turkey says that as many as 70,000 illegal Armenian migrant workers, mostly women, eke out a living as servants and nannies in Istanbul. A recent study by Alin Ozinian, an Armenian-Turkish researcher shows that such women arrive full of fear of “the Turk” only to return with stories of kindness. If the land borders were to be reopened some day, their wages would not have to be spent on long, pricey bus rides through Georgia.
Copyright © 2010 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15676977

DVD Release / Satışı

2009-12-26T01:12:00.000-08:00

TALKING PICTURES / WHISPERING MEMORIES

http://amzn.com/B0031TZXRC

KONUŞAN FOTOĞRAFLAR / ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR

On composing for "Talking Pictures" - Paolo Poti

2009-10-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

Composing music for "Talking Pictures" was a great experience. I had the chance to work with a lot of freedom and with some bonds at the same time. I had freedom because with Mehmet and Caner, the directors, we started talking about music before the actual editing started, just getting inspiration from the story, which I consider a very touching one. At the same time I had a bond, because I was asked to use "Cilicia", a famous Armenian song which was originally composed by Kapriel Yeranian. "Cilicia" served as the main source of the musical material we would hear in the film. We had the recording of one of the characters singing Cilicia, so I even used some audio material and composed a piece that could fit that singing, with new harmonic and timbral solutions.

For another sequence in the movie, where Ghazaros and Vivian travel to Turkey, I was asked for a simple piano piece, but with different tempo speeds that could fit different visual speeds. The song is called "Why are we visitors now?". In this blog, we are making this song available to readers as an appetizer to the film.

files.me.com/mehmetbinay/b74jpo

Another piece, "I'll be back" is a sort of classical quartet version of Cilicia, where the sorrow and the despair of the original song gives way to a calmer and limpid meditation. Also, having the chance to travel to Istanbul and to work alongside the team of Talking Pictures added quality to the final result, apart from making it a wonderful human experience.

In CAM Film's studio we worked side by side with Mehmet, Caner and Jasmin, the editor of many successful documentaries. We would sit and watch the images and then I would go back to my desk and keyboard, editing and changing my score according to the changing needs of the movie. Then I would give Jasmin the new audio file and again we would comment the effect of the music on the images, in a process of action and reaction, until we reached the desired solution.

That's why I really enjoyed the whole process and I am very happy with the artistical result.

Paolo Poti

http://www.paolopoti.com/

Filmmaker Interview with Mehmet Binay & Caner Alper / ARPA International Film Festival

2009-10-22T02:11:00.001-07:00

Filmmaker Interview with MEHMET BINAY & CANER ALPER Films: “WHISPERING MEMORIES” and “TALKING PICTURES” ARPA International Film Festival

Mehmet Binay & M.Caner Alper

Screening: Oct. 24th, 12:30 pm Egyptian Theater - Hollywood, LA

“Whispering Memories” is not a story of Armenians who had to leave Turkey but of those who stayed behind and silently became Muslims: they are now called the ‘Converts’. This film documents ‘Armenian Converts’ and how they survived 1915 by remaining in the small village of Geben, in the Taurus mountains of Anatolia.

“Talking Pictures,” is the sequel to Whispering Memories. It shows the photographic journey of Ghazaros Kerjilian returning to his paternal home town of Geben, Turkey – and his search for his lost great uncle in 1915.

1. Tell us a little about yourself and where you have lived, highlighting any major cultural identities that define, influence or challenge you in your life.

We come from different backgrounds; Caner Alper, an engineering graduate but a self-taught screenwriter and Mehmet Binay, a political science graduate with professional experience in TV journalism. We’re trying to incorporate the power of fiction and non-fiction by getting inspired from real life and weaving these facts into dramatic stories.

Our family roots are also from different parts of Turkey. Mehmet has got roots in the Balkans and in Central Europe whereas Caner was born in the most western city of Izmir into a family of eastern Anatolian descent.

We’ve also been spending half of our time traveling in Asia, North America, Europe, the Caucasus and the Middle East for business and inspiration. One requires a stranger’s point of view to life and people in order to be able to create compelling stories which few have noticed before. We need to alienate ourselves to our own culture, people and traditions for objectivity and creativity. This is how we define our way of story telling.

2. How did you come to be a filmmaker, and where/how did you learn the “craft” of filmmaking?

Caner is a published writer and a self-taught screenwriter and he’s always been a cinema lover whereas Mehmet learned the craft of filmmaking in television productions. Reading non-fiction and literature is also a very important component of creating stories because your imagination in written texts has no limits but you face the challenge of turning these into visuals. Filmmaking is an art form where your imagination constantly needs to evolve and it needs to be supported with new techniques.

3. What prompted the idea for your film and how did it evolve?

“Whispering Memories” developed from a number of visits by Mehmet to Geben, a mountain village in southern Turkey, where village youngsters showed a desire to learn about their local history and, while investigating, came across Armenians who used to live in the area until 1915. Some of the witnesses of this era and members of the local Oral History Project were saying that some people in this village are direct descendants of converted Armenians who either silently or by force became Muslims to be able to avoid deportation in 1915. Mehmet’s initial journalistic instinct was to keep a distance to these rural historic conversations by using the camera as an observer only. Caner, later on, helped establishing strong cinematographic links by integrating a three-day rural wedding into the visual story and having it serve as a leitmotif throughout the film…

The sequel “Talking Pictures” to “Whispering Memories” showed us that documentaries are always alive and they evolve within time…”Kerjili” was the only Armenian name villagers of Geben in “Whispering Memories” remembered clearly and they told us how he left the village in 1915 and never came back. Soon after our premiere at the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Armenia, we received an email from someone telling that his father was from Geben and that he always wanted to go back there. The email was from Ghazaros Kerjilian which really surprised us because it immediately reminded us of the name “Kerjili” in Whispering Memories.

Our short documentary “Talking Pictures” tells the photographic journey of Ghazaros Kerjilian returning to his paternal home town of Geben and his search for the lost great uncle in 1915. In “Talking Pictures”, we used a different filmmaking technique and used only still photographs to tell our story. We took nearly 7.000 pictures and created continuous sequences after a long process of colour grading. We believe that photographs from archives and still photographs mix well together and they leave an eternal mark in people’s memories and we wanted to instigate that feeling among our viewers.

At the same time, music also plays an important role in our creative process serving as an indispensable part in our stories. In “Talking Pictures”, we worked with an Italian film music composer who listened to the Armenian song “Cilicia” which we’d recorded by one of our protagonists while shooting the documentary. Composer Paolo Poti carefully rearranged the music and based the entire soundtrack on this famous Armenian song with a classical approach. We are very excited about the international debut of “Talking Pictures” at ARPA International Film Festival in LA and we’re hoping to receive a lot of feedback from the screening.

4. What is your single favorite line from your film?

From WHISPERING MEMORIES: “A coward, a real coward is one that is afraid of one’s own memories.”

From TALKING PICTURES: “I had to go, I had to find out…”

5. What movies would you say have transformed or changed the way you see the world?

So many! We basically love movies that cover many aspects of the identity issue. Some of the films that have influenced us are: Europa, The Edge of Heaven, Baader Meinhof Komplex, Le Dernier Metro, Hable Con Ella, The Reader, Tous les matins du Monde, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, City of God, Remains of the Day, Bicycle Thief, Sophie’s Choice, Constant Gardener, Reds, Being There, Lives of Others, The Crying Game, The City of Lost Children, A Short Film about Killing, Delicatessen, Ice Storm, Wedding Banquet.

Listen without prejudice

2009-10-19T03:19:00.000-07:00

Long before we started filming WHISPERING MEMORIES, it was well agreed that there should have been no voice over to tell the story of “Converts”.

Being in a remote village in southern Turkey, in a harsh environment, trying to persuade people talk about the past which have been silent for almost a century, kept us quite... We decided to let the people talk.

When Ghazaros found us last year, it was obvious that he would want to talk about his past and search for his lost family history. He’d brought pictures from his family album which started giving us hints to his barb-wired history.

Hence we developed the idea of taking still photographs and editing them in a motion picture film along with Ghazaros’ family album. The result was a documentary called TALKING PICTURES.

I believe that not only the truth but also the future lies in between the lines of TALKING PICTURES only if we can watch the pictures move along and listen to what they say, without prejudice.

M.Caner Alper

Director / Talking Pictures

A letter from 1915

2009-10-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

When you make films, you’d think your job is done once the editing is over, and the story is out and ready for screening. This was how I felt when Whispering Memories first met with the Turkish audience thanks to a national TV broadcast on CNN Turk, and the first international festival screening at the Golden Apricot in Yerevan, Armenia in July 2008. This is how we started telling the story of a tiny and hidden village in the Taurus mountains of Turkey to the outside world. A documentary film about ‘Armenian Converts’ and how they survived 1915 by remaining in this small village in Anatolia.

Soon after my visit to Yerevan, I received an email through my producer M.Caner Alper. He’d also included in his note that I should have a close look at it because the sender was mentioning that his father was from Geben, the Turkish village where we’d filmed ‘Whispering Memories’.

I started reading the email word by word and spotted the name Ghazaros Kerjilian as its sender. I first went into silence and then I could not avoid crying because ‘Kerjili’ was the only Armenian name in Whispering Memories, villagers of Geben remembered clearly. They’d told us the story of how he left Geben as the last person from the Armenian community. And now, I was receiving an email from someone carrying the same name and he was saying that his father was from Geben and that he always wanted to visit Geben until he died, only four years ago at the age of 97.

Our correspondence continued with mutual excitement and passion until Ghazaros came out to Toronto from upstate New York to meet me and my producer Caner at the Pomegranate International Film Festival. There, we sat next to each other while we watched -once again- how villagers described in detail his grandfather leaving Geben in 1915. Ghazaros had also brought his father’s picture to Toronto for us to see. As soon as we caught a glimpse of his father’s face, we both said to each other that he has a peculiar similarity to the Old Imam in Whispering Memories, a first hand witness of 1915.

Over the winter months, we slowly and cautiously planned Ghazaros’ journey to his fathers village in the Taurus Mountains. Yasemin, the Convert girl in Whispering Memories and her family warmheartedly welcomed our intentions and offered us their hospitality without any conditions. In Geben, we would stay at their home and be witness to the reunion of “Turks” and “Armenians” of Geben for the first time after almost a century since their separation. Furthermore, there could also be family relations to be unearthed between “Turks” and “Armenians”...

...

Pictures leave a life-long mark in our memories regardless of how important movies are in modern times. This is why we decided to document Ghazaros’ journey by taking continuously shot still photographs. Over 6.000 pictures formed the basis of a 14 minute long documentary film enriched by interviews recorded in the field. Italian composer Paolo Poti prepared the soundtrack based on the famous Armenian song “Cilicia” in a classical approach. This is how our short documentary “Talking Pictures” came into life with its international debut to be taken place at the ARPA International Film Festival between 23-25 October 2009 in Los Angeles.

Herewith, we’d like to thank you for your interest in Whispering Memories and our evolving documentary story. The teaser of Talking Pictures can be found in Youtube, Vimeo and Facebook; related links are provided below. Information about screenings at upcoming festivals and digital platforms will be constantly updated via our blog, Facebook group, and the official site of CAM Film.

Please help us in sharing our story with the world.

Thank you.

Mehmet Binay / M.Caner Alper

8 October 2009

------------------------

For more information:

Talking Pictures is the photographic journey of Ghazaros Kerjilian to his paternal home in the Taurus mountain region in Turkey and his search for the lost great uncle in 1915.

A short documentary by Mehmet BINAY / M.Caner ALPER

Post-production by Jasmin GUSO

Photography by Huseyin ONAN

Music by Paolo POTI

Narrated by Mehmet BINAY

TALKING PICTURES

Teaser on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k25jBGcljhQ

Teaser on Vimeo:

http://www.vimeo.com/6926352

Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30514440135

French daily Le Figaro about Turkish intellectuals and art on history

2008-12-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

L'intelligentsia turque regarde son passé arménien

De plus en plus d'intellectuels et d'artistes bousculent la version officielle de l'histoire.

QUAND le mot « génocide » a été prononcé, quelques spectateurs ont quitté la salle de cinéma du Centre culturel français, à Istanbul. Tous les autres sont restés pour découvrir le documentaire de Serge Avédikian, réalisateur français d'origine arménienne, qui a filmé son retour dans le village natal de son grand-père, déporté en 1915. Dans l'ouest de la Turquie, Sölöz est aujourd'hui peuplé par des Slaves islamisés qui y ont échoué lors des échanges de population forcés avec la Grèce en 1923. Du génocide, ils n'ont donc rien vu, rien entendu, hormis la version négationniste de l'État turc. Mais les grandes bâtisses désertes trouvées à leur arrivée murmurent une autre histoire. Sur les pierres tombales, précieusement conservées au fond d'une grange ou reconverties en clôtures, on peut lire, encore, des épitaphes en arménien : « Dors doucement mon fils. » À Sölöz, villageois et fantômes se croisent dans les ruelles et parfois, les certitudes vacillent. « Les informations que nous avons sur le passé ne sont pas claires », pressent le jeune Hamit, face à la caméra.

Nous avons bu la même eau a été projeté à l'occasion du festival « 1 001 films documentaires », la semaine dernière sur les rives du Bosphore. « Il a été sélectionné par des Turcs, la démarche est courageuse, le montrer en Turquie est un symbole très fort », salue Serge Avédikian, venu présenter son film, pour établir le dialogue et un jour, pouvoir « partager nos mémoires ». « Je mesure l'ampleur de la tâche : énorme. Mais, ça y est, la boîte de l'histoire est ouverte. »

Cette invitation à se pencher sur le passé arménien de la Turquie n'est pas isolée. De plus en plus d'intellectuels turcs mettent au jour les non-dits du passé et bousculent l'histoire officielle. Avec un objectif commun : regarder en face les massacres commis sous l'Empire ottoman afin de pacifier le présent. En 2005, le vent de liberté apporté par l'ouverture des négociations d'adhésion à l'Union européenne avait permis aux universitaires turcs de faire sauter le tabou sur le génocide.

« Soi-disant » génocide

Dès sa parution, Le Livre de ma grand-mère a aussitôt été un best-seller : dans ce récit autobiographique, l'avocate turque Fethiye Cetin racontait que son aïeule lui avait révélé ses origines arméniennes avant de mourir. Mais c'est l'assassinat en janvier 2007 de Hrant Dink, journaliste turc d'origine arménienne, qui a provoqué un électrochoc. « Tout le monde a vu son corps, étendu sur le trottoir, ses chaussures qui dépassaient du drap blanc, analyse Altug Yilmaz, rédacteur en chef à Agos, le journal créé par Hrant Dink. Avec cette image, si forte, douter de sa sincérité devenait impossible. »

Ece Temelkuran, journaliste vedette en Turquie, revendique cette filiation : « Je suis une héritière de Hrant Dink. » Dans La Profondeur du mont Ararat, la jeune femme relate sa plongée dans le monde arménien : sa visite au mémorial du génocide à Erevan, ses rencontres avec la diaspora, de Paris à Los Angeles. « J'ai voulu questionner le silence qui règne en Turquie sur ce sujet, notre aveuglement, alors que nous habitons des lieux où des Arméniens ont vécu, nous remémorer ce que nous savons déjà, mais que l'ont nous a fait oublier. »

Pour Ece Temelkuran, « le seul moyen de résoudre la question arménienne en Turquie est d'en faire une question personnelle, aider chacun à mener ce que j'appelle son archéologie personnelle afin de dépasser le point de vue étatique ». Paru fin mai, le récit de son voyage initiatique s'est déjà vendu à 30 000 exemplaires.

Pourtant, le déni de l'État sur la planification des massacres ne se fissure toujours pas (voir ci-contre). On parle toujours de « soi-disant » génocide et les Arméniens n'existent pas dans les livres d'histoire, sauf comme ennemis. Ce discours a semble-t-il glissé sur Geben, bourgade perdue des monts Taurus. Dans Le Chuchotement des mémoires, Mehmet Binay a filmé une jeune fille qui n'ignore rien du sang mélangé coulant dans ses veines. Génération après génération, l'histoire s'est diluée. À la question « Pourquoi les Arméniens sont-ils partis ? », les réponses des villageois sont évasives. Exceptée celle de l'imam centenaire. « Les Arméniens ? L'État les a déportés. » Étonnamment, ce documentaire, dédié « A ceux qui sont restés derrière » n'a soulevé aucune polémique lors de sa diffusion sur la chaîne de télévision CNN-Türk. « Le discours officiel n'est pas trop arrivé jusqu'à Geben et les gens vivent naturellement avec le passé, analyse Mehmet Binay. Cela me donne de l'espoir. »

Cet hiver, un film réalisé par une équipe mixte doit être tourné le long de la rivière Araxe, qui sépare les deux pays. Le dégel du cours d'eau au printemps symbolisera le réchauffement des relations alors que la frontière est toujours fermée. Les acteurs seront des Arméniens et des Turcs vivant de part et d'autre des miradors.

Turkish filmmaker's documentary provides fresh look at history

2008-08-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

Turkish filmmaker's documentary provides fresh look at history

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Young documentary filmmaker and journalist Mehmet Binay’s “Whispering Memories” handles the story of Armenians who stayed rather than left during the incidents of 1915. Looking at the historical events from a fresh point-of-view, Binay’s film has been screened at the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Armenian capital Yerevan, attracting much interest

YASEMİN SİM ESMEN
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

A lot has been said about Armenians who left their homes in 1915, but not much has been said about those who stayed. It is this often overlooked aspect that documentary filmmaker and journalist Mehmet Binay tackles in a new film, Whispering Memories.

Today, we need to prove that we do care about our past and we are ready to confess [our] mistakes, whatever geopolitical reason they might have had. I think filmmaking is a great way to reconcile with Armenians, who are an important part of our imperial past, said Binay in an interview with the Turkish Daily News. He added that the events of 1915 resulted in a majority of Anatolian Armenians being wiped out from their ancestral homeland. A significant cultural, social and economic element of our society was taken out of Turkey's mosaic, which we kept mentioning as a stronghold of our culture and identity throughout the centuries. 1915 was a terrible human disaster causing economic, social and political imbalances in eastern Turkey, while its effects still dominate our problems there.

Binay comes from a family that migrated to modern-day Turkey from their ancestral land in the Balkans. With stories of migration in his past and a fascination with the richness of history and the mystery of eastern Turkey, Binay has traveled extensively in eastern Anatolia. Its authenticity, complexity and the sorrow in people's eyes had been striking me while I was on my photographic journeys along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which I've documented extensively since the 1990s, said the filmmaker.

Discovering a unique village

It was during this journey that he came across ancient gravestones located in many spots in the village of Geben in the Taurus Mountains of Kahramanmaraş province. [They] had struck me with their unknown origin and the sheer size of them standing up against time, said Binay. Whispering Memories developed from a number of visits by the filmmaker to Geben, where village youngsters showed a desire to learn about their local history and, while investigating, came across Armenians who used to live in the area widely until 1915. Some of the witnesses of this era and members of the Oral History Project were saying that some people in this village are the descendants of converted Armenians who either silently or by force became Muslims to be able to avoid deportation in 1915, said Binay.

Whispering Memories brings a fresh look at the facts, wrote Taraf columnist Amberin Zaman.

My initial journalistic instinct told me to keep a distance to these rural historic conversations by using the camera as an observer only, said the filmmaker, who decided not to lead the interviews but just to listen to them in order to sustain objectivity. The documentary's producer and drama advisor, Caner Alper, then helped establish strong cinematographic links between the conversations and the filmmakers by integrating a three-day rural wedding into the visual story and having it serve as a leitmotif throughout the film.

Binay said he believes that honesty and neutrality are the strongholds of Whispering Memories. We are able to understand economic and social links between Armenians and Turks prior to 1915 thanks to sincere conversations between village elders and youngsters, he said. He said he believes that the wedding, the story of which is told in the film, helps viewers understand that story of The Converts, as marriage is a perfect way to mix different cultures, ethnicities and religions.

Yet memories remain and live throughout generations if not condemned or discriminated just because of their being different. This is exactly how this small village in the Taurus Mountains was able to develop a liberal, open and peaceful society without getting too much polarized throughout the 20th century. Geben is a perfect example of how different roots and cultures can live peacefully together or side by side even today, added Binay.

Whispering Memories was filmed over two years. The wedding was filmed in 2006, while preparations for rural history conversations were filmed in 2007. It took both Binay and village youngsters much effort and time to convince people to speak about those times in an open and frank way. Shooting the film in two years had some drawbacks and difficulties. Village youngsters leading oral history conversations were present at the wedding a year ago but they'd grown up or changed, so we needed to make sure the audience didn't feel disturbed by those visual changes. The entire filming process required a lot of planning regarding time and lighting so we could fit those different segments in a natural flow, Binay said.

The documentary was broadcasted on the Turkish news channel CNN-Türk on June 27, 2008, prior to its screening in the Golden Apricot Film Festival. In the period leading up to the documentary's broadcast on CNN-Türk, the documentary's makers set up a blog, a Web site, and a group on social networking Web site Facebook. Binay said the audience in Turkey was generally impressed by the objectivity and the lyrical flow of the storyline. I received feedback from Turkish historians appreciating our work to find out honest and open remarks about 1915, he said and added, I also think documentaries are a popular and successful way to convey facts and figures about our history to the general public.

The film's two screenings in Yerevan drew attention and the audience requested a long question and answer sessions afterwards, during which Binay was asked whether he was scared to film such a documentary in Turkey. They also asked me why I filmed this documentary as a filmmaker with no Armenian or eastern roots. Armenians today do not know modern Turkey besides the fact that intellectuals such as Hrant Dink can be killed by ultra-nationalists simply by talking about the Turkish identity and accepting 1915 as genocide. They do not expect Turkish filmmakers to make fair and objective films or documentaries about 1915, said Binay. He said Whispering Memories impressed the Armenian audience in Yerevan by providing a fair and objective look into historical events.

Also some people in the audience [in Yerevan] told their own memories of converted grandmothers and other family members. They got very sentimental at certain points but they also laughed a lot during some of the wedding scenes, said Binay.

WHISPERING MEMORIES AND PREJUDICES BROKEN WITH ART

2008-07-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

WHISPERING MEMORIES AND PREJUDICES BROKEN WITH ART

Amberin Zaman
TARAF Newspaper
Yerevan

.....

Mehmet Binay is a young Turkish filmmaker who has broken the rule of learned lines and established bridges between our hearts. His documentary film “WHISPERING MEMORIES”; which was broadcasted on CNN Turk last week, reached the Armenian audience at the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan, Armenia. Binay, who produced successful documentaries at the Turkish news channel NTV for many years, is calling his new film an “Oral History Project” in which he tells the story of Armenians who during the atrocities of 1915 stayed behind and silently became Muslims. Those Armenians, who are called “The Converts” say that they also feel as “Turks” but they know that they are different and believe there is nothing wrong with that.

Filmmaker Binay says in a recent interview: “I was curious to know what they remembered, forgot about these years and how willing they were to remember the things from the past.” Binay fascinated the Armenian audience with his affectionate yet simple cinematographic language without politicisation and looking refuge in exaggerated sentimentality. Binay took the screening of WHISPERING MEMORIES one step further during the Q&A’s calmly with a good humour and talked about the recent changes in Turkey in a relaxed and sincere attitude.

Binay summarised his feelings about his visit to Armenia as: “WHISPERING MEMORIES’ arrival in Armenia had a two-fold significance for me. Firstly, the Armenian audience would be able to see how we, as neighbours of Armenians in our land, remember common life in the past. Secondly they would see the difficulties of some of the Armenians (who stayed and became Muslims) faced after they remained in Anatolia. Even though one can hardly hear whispered memories, it becomes hard to forget them because those are the stories of people who’d been living in this land for thousands of years and their traces are present ‘between the lines.’ I think my message was well received in Yerevan who watched WHISPERING MEMORIES at the Golden Apricot Festival. I may have saddened my audience in some instances but I also know that I was able to make them smile.”

.......

ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR, SANATLA KIRILAN ONYARGILAR

2008-07-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Amberin Zaman
TARAF GAZETESI
ERİVAN

Sevgili Hrant’la son günlerinde dostluk kuran, uluslararası prestije sahip, araştırmacı, yazar, oyuncu ve film yapımcısı Nouritza Matossian sayesinde Hrant’ı çok daha yakından tanıdık. Matossian, Hrant ile ölümünden birkaç yıl önce tanışmış. Kendisinden o kadar etkilenmiş ki, kimisi İstanbul’da, kimisi Londra’da olmak üzere, uzun uzun mülâkatlar yapıp hepsini kameraya kaydetmiş. İyi ki de yapmış. Hrant’ın katledilişinin ardından bunlardan ayıkladığı fragmanları birbirine örüp Hrant Dink: One Heart Two Nations (Hrant Dink: Tek Yürek, İki Ulus) adında sarsıcı bir belgesele imza atmış.

Matossian’ın filmi beş gündür Erivan’da süren Altın Kayısı Film Festivali’nde gösterildi. Mekân ufaktı, konu büyük, duygular yoğun. Filmin başından sonuna kadar Hrant anlatıyor... Çocukluğunu, Tuzla kampını, Rakel’i, çocuklarını, Türk dostlarını, Agos’u, Türkiye’de Ermeni olmanın sıkıntılarını, verdiği mücadeleyi, ve tabii ki kendisine açılan davaları, yöneltilen tehditleri...

Hrant’ı biz hep Türkçe dinlemiştik. Pekâlâ, bir soydaşı ile konuşurken farklı şeyler mi söylüyordu? Türkiye’yi karalıyor muydu? Asla... Hrant hep aynı Hrant. Açık sözlü, yürekli, sevecen, uzlaştırıcı, duygusal, çocuksu, coşkulu, umutlu, ve ülkesi Türkiye’ye karşı zaman zaman buruk da olsa müthiş sevgi dolu. Filmin bitişinde söz alan Matossian diyor ki: “Hrant Türkler ve Ermeniler hakkında bana açık açık önyargısız konuşan ilk insandı. Türklere Ermeniliğin kötü bir şey olmadığını anlatmak istiyordu.” Ama aynı zamanda Hrant yılmadan Ermenilere de Türklerin kötü olmadığını anlatmak için çabalıyordu.

Aslında Matossian da bu filmi üzerinden Ermenistanlı seyircilerine aynı mesajı veriyor. Türkler canavar değil. Bu Matossian’ın özel tarihi açısından da önemli bir eşik sayılmalı. Zira Kıbrıs Rum kesiminde doğan Matossian tehcirle birlikte memleketi Antep’ten sürülen bir ailenin kızı. Resmî tarihimizin sansürlediği hikâyelerle büyümüş. Matossian’ın en önemli eseri, 1915’te yaşananlara tanık olan ve kaçıp yerleştiği Amerika’da intihar eden Ermeni ressam Arşil Gorki hakkında kaleme aldığı Black Angel, A Life of Arshil Gorky. “Ben Hrant’ı tanımadan önce Türkiye ve Türkler hakkında çok farklı fikirlere sahiptim,” itirafında bulunuyor Matossian. Bu arada seyircilerden biri soruyor: “Hrant Dink’in cenazesinde yürüyen Türkler ‘Hepimiz Ermeniyiz’ derken gerçekten samimiler miydi.” “Evet” cevabını [bizden] alınca, şaşırıyor.

Ermenistan’da ezber bozan, gönül köprüleri kuran diğer film yapımcısı genç bir Türk: Mehmet Binay. Geçtiğimiz hafta CNN Türk’te yayımlanan belgeseli Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar festival kapsamında Ermenistanlı seyircilerle buluştu. NTV’de uzun yıllar başarılı belgesellere imza atmış olan Binay, “Sözlü Tarih” projesi olarak tarif ettiği bu çalışmasında, 1915 olaylarında Toroslar’da bir dağ köyünde kalan, Müslümanlaşan Ermenilerle tanıştırıyor bizleri. “Dönek” olarak anılan Ermeniler kendilerini “Türk” hissetliklerini ancak “farklı” olduklarını da bildiklerini, bunun da aslında “kötü bir şey” olmadığını söylüyorlar. Binay, yakın zamanda verdiği bir röportajda diyor ki: “Benim merak ettiğim, onların neyi hatırladıkları, neyi unuttukları ve unuttuklarını hatırlamaya ne kadar gönüllü olduklarıydı.” Binay, siyasete hiç bulaşmadan, duygusallığa sığınmadan, yalın ama sıcak sinema diliyle, Ermenistanlı seyircileri büyüledi, şaşırttı. Filmin ardından konuşan Binay rahat ve samimi tavırları ile gösterimi farklı bir boyuta taşıdı, Türkiye’deki değişimi sakin sakin güler yüzle anlattı.

Binay kendi duygularını ise şöyle özetledi bize: “Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’ın Ermenistan’a ulaşması benim için iki açıdan önemliydi. Birincisi; bıraktıkları topraklarda komşuları olan bizler onları nasıl hatırlıyor, onu tüm yalınlığıyla görebileceklerdi. İkincisi de; onlardan geriye kalan insanlar nasıl yaşadılar, ne tür zorluklar çektiler bunu öğreneceklerdi. Fısıltılar güçlükle duyulsa bile insanın aklından kolay kolay çıkmıyor, çünkü onlar binlerce yıldır Anadolu’da yaşayan insanların öyküsü ve izleri de satır aralarında hissediliyor. Sanırım Erivan’da filmi izleyenler vermek istediğim bu mesajı aldılar. Onları biraz üzdüysem, biraz da sevindirebildiğimi düşünüyorum.”

Bu arada Anadolu Kültür’den sevgili Çiğdem Mater’in festival boyunca Türkiye-Ermenistan ilişkilerine sunduğu katkısından söz etmeden geçemiyeceğim. Darısı devlet büyüklerimizin başına.

WHISPERING MEMORIES goes to Oslo, NORWAY

2008-07-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

Proud to announce that WHISPERING MEMORIES has been accepted to the official selection of "The Oslo Films from the South Festival", taking place in Oslo, Norway October 9-19 2008.

The 18th annual Films from the South Festival is screening approx. 130 films, carefully selected from current productions in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This will be the first time WHISPERING MEMORIES will meet an international group of people in Scandinavia as well as other filmmakers from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR, Oslo - Norvec yolunda

2008-07-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR, 9-19 Ekim 2008 tarihleri arasında Norveç'in başkenti Oslo'da gerçekleştirilecek olan Güney'den Filmler Festivali'ne kabul edildi.

18. Oslo Festivali'nde bu yıl Asya, Afrika ve Latin Amerika'dan yaklaşık 130 film gösterilecek. ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR da bu filmler arasında izlenebilecek. Bu sayede İskandinavya'daki sinema endüstrisi ile belgesel ekipleriyle tanışmayı ve filmimizi daha geniş bir kitleye tanıtmayı amaçlıyoruz.

AGOS Gazetesi "ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR"I YAZDI

2008-06-28T01:50:00.001-07:00

“GERÇEKTEN KORKAK OLAN, KENDİ HATIRALARINDAN KORKANDIR”

Önümüzdeki günlerde CNN Türk ekranlarında izleyiciyle buluşacak olan ‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’ adlı belgesel film, 1915 olaylarında bölgede kalıp sessizce Müslümanlaşan ve ‘dönükler’ olarak anılan Ermenilerin hikâyesini anlatıyor.

FUNDA TOSUN - AGOS GAZETESİ

20 Haziran 2008

Türkçede “dağlar arasında geçit, köprü” anlamına gelen ‘geben’ sözcüğü, Ermenice ‘gaban’ sözcüğünden türemiştir. İpek Yolu üzerinde bulunan, ismiyle müsemma Geben köyü, binlerce yıllık mirasıyla Ermeniler ve Türkler arasında bir köprü oluşturmuştur. 1915 olaylarında bölgede kalan ve sessizce Müslümanlaşan Ermenilerin hikâyesi, bir fısıltı halinde kulaktan kulağa dolaşır.

Deneyimli belgesel yönetmeni Mehmet Binay bu fısıltıları dinler ve yazar Elias Canetti’nin “Gerçekten korkak olan kendi hatıralarından korkandır” sözünü şiar edinerek tarihimizin karanlıklarına doğru yola çıkar. ‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’ belgeseliyle yönetmen Binay, ‘satır arası’ yaşayan bir halka dair hatırladıklarımız ve unuttuklarımızla toplumsal hafızamızı oluşturan şeyler üzerine fısıldıyor, sessiz sedasız, usulca…

• ‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’ projesi nasıl doğdu?

2003 ile 2007 yılları arasında her kilometresini dolaşarak fotoğrafladığım ve görüntüye aldığım Bakü-Tiflis-Ceyhan Boru Hattı’nda seyahat ederken Kahramanmaraş’a bağlı Geben kasabasına yolum düştü. Burada kalkınma kooperatifi kuran gençlerle sohbet etme imkânı buldum. Anadolu’ya gerçekleştirdiğim bunca seyahatin ışığında, bu kasabada yaşayanların, başka yerlerde karşılaştığım insanlardan farklı olduğunu görmüş, gençlerin yeni fikirlere ve projelere açık olmalarının yanı sıra siyasi açıdan oldukça liberal görüşlere sahip olduklarını tespit etmiştim. Bu gençler kasabalarında gerçekleştirilebilecek kalkınma projelerine merakla yaklaşıyor, girişimci ruhlarını saklamıyorlardı. Nisan 2006’da köye tekrar gittiğimde, bu gençler bir sözlü tarih çalışması yaparak köylerinin tarihi hakkında bilgi toplamaya çalışıyorlardı. Yapılacak röportajlarda 1915’e değin kasabada ve bu bölgede yaşamış olan Ermenilerin kültürüne ve Türklerle ilişkilerine dair sorular da vardı. Tüm bunlar bende unuttuğumuz ya da unutmak zorunda kaldığımız meselelere dair bir şeyler öğrenebilme şansımızın olduğu fikrini oluşturdu ve bu projeyi belgeselleştirmeye karar verdim. Böylece Ağustos 2006’da çekimlere başladık.

• Bir yerel sözlü tarih çalışmasını belgeselleştirme fikrinin dayanaklarını biraz daha açıklayabilir misiniz?

Siyasi veya resmi hiçbir amaç taşımayan bu sözlü tarih projesinin günümüz Türkiye’sinde ufak da olsa önemli bir adım olabileceğine inandım. Çünkü resmi tarih, Türkiye sınırları dışına çıkıldığında bizleri cevaplanması zor sorularla karşı karşıya bırakıyor, Türkiye içinde ise tartışılması bile gürültü ve kavgalara sebebiyet veren bir ortam yaratıyordu. Resmi tarih, Türk tarafında olsun, Ermeni tarafında olsun, sıradan insana uzak geliyor, kavranması güç uluslararası dengeleri ve 100 yıl öncesinin sosyal, siyasi ve ekonomik şartlarını gündeme getiriyordu. Olanları anlamak için belki de insan hikâyelerinden yola çıkmakta fayda vardı. Toroslar’da bir avuç gencin başlattığı bu girişim, en azından o kasabaya ilişkin olarak hatırlanan şeyleri, olduğundan ne daha az, ne de daha fazla, yani tüm açıklığıyla gün ışığına çıkaracaktı. Öte yandan, sözlü tarih, resmi tarihin çoğu zaman göz ardı ettiği sosyolojik, antropolojik ve iktisadi birçok yerel bilinmeyeni ve yeni oluşumları da bilim adamlarının önüne getirebilirdi.

• Filminizde sözlü tarih, resmi tarihin söylediklerini tekrarlıyor gibi. Yani unuttuklarımız değil de daha çok hatırladıklarımız üzerine kuruluyor film. Bu hatırladıklarımız, zaten resmi tarihin hatırlanmasına müsaade ettiği şeyler değil mi?

Röportajlarda birbirleriyle çelişen ifadeler vardı, dile getirilen bazı anılar yetersizdi çünkü birinci nesil tanıklar artık yaşamıyordu. Ama hatırlamak kadar unutmak da gerçeğe aitti ve belgeselde bunlara da yer vermeye çalıştım. Ancak bazı hatıralar son derece keskin ve açıktı, dolayısıyla Ermenilerin 1915’te neden ve nasıl bu toprakları terk ettiğini, birincil kaynaklara dayanarak gözler önüne seriyordu. Belgesel sonucunda ortaya çıkan anlatılar ve öykülerin bazıları zayıf veya önemsiz görünse de satır aralarını okumayı becerebilenler için değerli bir kaynak bence. Çünkü ‘satır arası’ yaşamak zorunda kalan bir halkın hikâyesi anlatılan.

• Bu söylediklerinizi, bir yönetmen olarak sadece belgelemekle yetinmenizin, sürece müdahil olmayışınızın, yani hafızalarımızı ve vicdanımızı zorlamayışınızın, unuttuklarımızı hatırlatmayışınızın nedeni olarak düşünebilir miyiz?

‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’ belgeselinin sinematografik konseptini geliştirirken kamerayı sadece bir izleyici olarak kullanmak, röportajları gerçekleştiren gençlerin ve kasabanın yaşlılarının dışında tutmak istiyordum. Yani yönetmen olarak kendimi ‘soru soran araştırmacı’ kimliğinden kurtarmaya ve tamamen objektif bir gözlemci rolünde tutmaya kararlıydım. Aydınlanmış ya da yarı aydınlanmış bir kimlikle durmak istemedim. Benim merak ettiğim, onların neyi hatırladıkları, neyi unuttukları ve unuttuklarını hatırlamaya ne kadar gönüllü olduklarıydı. Sonuçta ortaya çıkan 42 dakikalık belgesel, kaydedilen görüntü ve seslerin bir anlam sırası ve bütünlüğüyle bir araya getirildiği bir görsel hikâyeye dönüştü. ‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’, dil, kan ve dinin iç içe geçtiği ‘dönükler’in hikâyesi ile nesillerin devamını ifade eden 3 günlük geleneksel bir Çukurova düğününü bir araya getirdi.

• Filmde baskın bir milliyetçi ve cinsiyetçi söylem var. ‘Dönükler’, belki de tüm ‘dönen’ ya da ‘dönmek zorunda’ kalan insanlar gibi, dönüştükleri yerin en muhafazakâr noktasına yakın duruyorlar. …

Evet, mesala Ermeni bir babaanneden bahsedilirken “o kadın” ifadesi kullanılıyor. Oysa arada neredeyse birinci dereceden kan bağı var. Bu anlamda sürekli bir ‘öteki’leştirme söz konusu. Bir kültürü sonradan benimseyen ya da benimsemek zorunda kalan insanlarda bu tür refleksler oluşuyor. Bu, dışarıya yönelik bir çeşit savunma mekanizması. Yani, bu ötekileştirme yalnızca söylem düzeyinde, çünkü kendilerinin de bir yanlarıyla ‘öteki’ olduklarını biliyorlar. Filmde “Ben de Türk’üm ama bir farkım var” şeklinde bir ifade var. Buradaki “ama” çok önemli ve zenginleştirici bir sözcük bence. Ve kişisel tarihlerimizde böyle çok “ama”lar var. Bir arkadaşımın ailesi, ailenin erkek çocukları 16 yaşına geldiğinde onları toplayarak ‘Ermeni dönüğü’ olduklarını açıklıyor, ki bu ailede aşırı muhafazakâr, ülkücü insanlar var. Bu gerçekle yüzleşmek zor tabii. Ama, “ama”larımızla barışmamız gerek.

• Filmde, Geben’de ataerkil kültürün kendini bir şekilde hissettirdiği görülüyor. Bu konuda neler söyleyeceksiniz?

Evet, bu kesinlikle doğru. Benim ‘düğün’ motifini kullanmamın sebebi de budur. ‘Düğün’, dramaturjik anlamda önemli bir görsel malzeme olmasının yanında, cinsiyet ilişkilerini göstermesi açısından da önemliydi. Evlenecek kızın ‘gâvur köyü’nden alınıyor olması, çeyiziyle birlikte aslında anılarını da yanında götürmesi ve kimliğini geride bırakması… Daha önemlisi, filmin düğün sahnesinde, meydanda verilen temsil tüm Çukurova bölgesinde görülen bir ritüel. Temsilde bir adam, bir kadın ve kadının kızları yer alıyor. Adam, köy köy gezip bu kızlarla evlenecek münasip kocalar arar. Kızlar, ‘cilve’leriyle genç erkeklerin gönlünü çalar ve bu kızlara ‘gâvurun sıpaları’ denir… Aslında sözcükler tesadüfi değil ve pek çok şeyi ifşa ediyor. Bu ritüel, geride kalan Ermeni kadınlara dair ipuçları veriyor.

• ‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’ nerelerde gösterilecek?

11 Temmuz Cuma 21.00’de CNN Türk belgesel kuşağında gösterilecek; ardından Yerevan’da Altın Kayısı Uluslararası Film Festivali’ne katılacağız; daha sonra Seul Film Festivali’nde izleyiciyle buluşmayı umuyoruz.

MEHMET BİNAY: “ ‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’, dil, kan ve dinin iç içe geçtiği ‘dönükler’in hikâyesi ile nesillerin devamını ifade eden 3 günlük geleneksel bir Çukurova düğününü bir araya getirdi.”

AGOS, Armenian newspaper about WHISPERING MEMORIES

2008-06-28T01:45:00.000-07:00

“A REAL COWARD IS ONE THAT IS AFRAID OF ONE’S OWN MEMORIES”

FUNDA TOSUN – AGOS (Armenian newspaper published in Turkey)

20 June 2008

“Whispering Memories”, a documentary film is telling the story of ‘The Converts’, which are Armenians who stayed behind by silently becoming Muslims during the 1915 atrocities. The film will be shown on the Turkish news channel CNN Turk soon.

‘Geben’, meaning a passage in Turkish, derives from the Armenian word ‘Gaban’. The village of Geben, lying on the ancient Silk Road, has been a bridge between Armenians and Turks with its heritage of thousands of years. The story of Armenians, who stayed behind and kept living in the region after the 1915 atrocities, has been whispering in the region.

Mehmet Binay, an experienced documentary filmmaker, listened to whispered stories and started travelling into unknown pages of our history by taking a lead on a quote by writer Elias Canetti, “A real coward is one that is afraid of one’s own memories.” Director Binay is whispering quietly and silently about what we remember and have forgotten about a group of people who live between the lines and all the things forming our social memory...

- How did the “Whispering Memories” project come to life?

I came across a small town called Geben in the Kahramanmaras province of Turkey when I was travelling for documenting the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline between the years 2003 and 2007. I had the opportunity to meet a group of young people who had formed a village development cooperative there. Having well travelled in eastern Anatolia, I’d witnessed that these young people were different than ones in other communities with their liberal attitude and their spirit and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship. When I went back to the village in April 2006, they told me about their interest in an amateur oral history project to find out more about hidden pages in the recent history of their community. They had also prepared questions about Armenians, their relationship with Turks and Armenian culture that lived in this vicinity until 1915. All this has inspired me to get answers to questions, which could enlighten things we have forgotten, or we were forced to forget about our past. Then the idea of documenting this project came to reality and we started filming work in August 2006.

- Could you please explain the reasons and foundations of the idea of turning an oral history project into a documentary film?

I thought that this documentary without any political or official foundations could resemble a small yet important step in today’s Turkey because our official history writing doesn’t gear us much when we’re in foreign countries and in Turkey herself, even discussing some historical issues creates huge arguments and discussions. Official history writing, both on the Turkish and Armenian sides does not establish a close link with the people themselves, requiring laymen to understand political, social and economic conditions of the late 19th century as well as complex big power relations. I thought that it would be a simple yet wise idea to start from people’s own stories and memories to understand what happened back then. The oral history project initiated by a small number of young people was going to answer questions about this particular settlement and its people in a manner not exaggerating or underestimating real memories. The oral history project was also going to unearthen hints to some facts, which could inspire sociologists, anthropologists and economists to enrich their future academic research.

- In your film, it seems that the oral history project repeats what official history is already telling us. It seems like not that it doesn’t really find out what has been forgotten but what is still remembered. Aren’t those remembered already things the official history allows us to do so?

There were contradictory statements in the interviews conducted by youngsters with village elders. Some of the memories were not sufficient enough because first generation witnesses had already passed away. However I thought that forgetting is part of our reality and I tried keeping those in the documentary as well yet some of the memories were sharp and clear, therefore it was quite remarkable to hear why and how Armenians had left that settlement in 1915. A first hand witness in the village told us those. I am aware that some of the stories told were quite weak and they seemed insignificant but they will be quite important for those who are able and willing to read between the lines of our history because my film is all about a group of people who were forced to live ‘between the lines’.

- Can we assume that the reason behind your role as a director –not reminding people about what they don’t tell or able to tell- is a conscious choice and you did not interfere into the story as an investigative reporter but remaining an observer at all times to document the reality in its pure form?

I made a clear decision to use the camera as an observer and keep myself distant to village youngsters and elderly conversations’ when I developed the cinematographic concept of story telling for “Whispering Memories” through which I remained loyal to my initial choice. I wanted to free myself from the role as an investigative reporter and be an observer throughout the filming process. I was curious to know what they remember about those times, what they have forgotten, and how willing they were to remember things they knew before. The end result was a 42 minute long documentary film, edited out of footage recorded during village conversations and soundbites. A three day long Cukurova (a wide and arid plain in the south of Turkey) wedding was also filmed to set as a leitmotiv resembling the continuation of generations producing “Whispering Memories” which is a series of stories mixed out of race, religion and languages.

- There is a nationalist and sexist language in the film. The Converts, as most other people who converted or had to convert to survive, are the most conservative ones in their communities…

Yes, exactly. In one instance, there is talk of an Armenian grandmother and there they use the term “that woman” despite a direct genetic link to the person. There is a constant marginalisation of those who were different in race, religion or language when they joined Turkish families. Those behaviour or approaches are typical for the converts. It serves as a defence mechanism for those who want to prove - they are Turks now-. This is common talk among the converts because they constantly know are they are reminded they are ‘the other in the society’. There is a final quote in the film “I am also a Turk but I know that I am different though.” The word “but” or “still” is quite important and enriching in terms of multicultural identities. I have a friend whose uncle once gathered all the sons who became 15-16-17 years old and came out to them that their family is converted from being Armenian to Turks and Muslims. Some of the family members are very conservative and also ultra-nationalists. It is hard to face that truth if you think you are something else. I think we need to make peace with our personal histories, our reality.

- It is obvious in your film that a patriarchal system is still ruling over the families and the community in Geben. How do you explain this?

This is exactly the reason why I picked up the wedding as a leitmotif for my film. The wedding, in its dramaturgical meaning, served as a perfect visual material to me but it also illustrated how the girl and the boy were looked at in a rural society. The bride was being married off –symbolically- from the “Christian village” and she was taking away her memoirs by leaving behind her identity. Moreover, the theatrical play during the wedding was a typical for the Cukurova region where a middle-aged man was walking from one village to the other with a woman and her two daughters for whom he was looking for ‘appropriate’ grooms. As they arrive in the village the girls would start flirting with two of the village boys and they would be called “daughters of the infidel.” All those words are not incidental. This theatrical play present many hints to what some Armenian women went through who stayed behind during the atrocities starting in 1915.

- Where will your film be shown?

“Whispering Memories” will be broadcasted on CNN Turk, a news channel in Turkey at 21:00 on 11 July 2008. Later, our film will be shown at the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan, Armenia 13-20 July 2008. We’ve also been invited to Seoul International Film Festival in September.

WHISPERING MEMORIES on CNNTurk on 11 July 2008, Friday at 21:00

2008-06-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

Our documentary film "WHISPERING MEMORIES" will be broadcasted on CNNTurk in a special documentary films segment on 11 July 2008, Friday at 21:00 Turkish time.

The film will be aired in its native language Turkish subtitled in Turkish to help understand a local dialect where it was filmed in the Taurus mountains of south-eastern Turkey.

This will be the first TV-screening of "Whispering Memories".

Thanks for your interest in our documentary. A DVD pack with Turkish, English, German and Armenian subtitles will be available soon for sale over our eBay store.

Best regards
Mehmet Binay

ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR, 11 Temmuz 2008 Cuma gunu 21:00'da CNNTurk'te

2008-06-05T13:29:00.001-07:00

"Anadolu'dan Fisiltilar" isimli belgeselimiz 11 Temmuz Cuma gunu 21:00'da CNNTurk belgesel kusaginda yayinlanacak. Yayin oncesindeki hafta ve gunlerde belgeselle ilgili duyurulari basindan da takip edebilirsiniz.

Ilginize ve izledikten sonra gondereceginiz yorumlara simdiden tesekkur ediyoruz.

Mehmet Binay

Yonetmen

Unutulmuş öyküler fısıldayan mezar taşları

2008-05-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

Bilmediğim ülkelerde, daha önce gitmediğim illerde seyahat ederken farklı kültürlere ait mezarlıklar hep dikkatimi çekmiştir. Orta Asya’da ve eski Sovyet ülkelerinde siyah mermerden yapılan mezar taşlarına merhumun portre resmi kazınır, Kafkaslar’da mezarlıklar kırmızı karanfille alev alev yanar, Anadolu’da ise bakımsızdır çoğu, etraflarını kaplayan yabani otlar artık sona ermiş hayatları ifade eder. Ancak her seyahat insana daha önce görmediği şeyleri bahşeder, kimi zaman bir dağ yolunda yanından geçilen mezarlık diğerlerinden farklıdır ve rengarenk boyanmış demir kafeslerle süslenmiştir, bazılarında ise yüksek duvarlar arasına gizlenmiştir, zarar görmemek ve sonsuza değin ayakta kalabilmek için…

Bundan birkaç yıl evvel Toroslar’da seyahat ederken garip mezar taşlarının olduğu bir mezarlıkla karşılaştım ve fotoğraf çekmek için mola verdim. Taşların yüksekliği birle üç metre arasında değişiyor ve üzerlerinde hiçbir yazı bulunmuyordu. Kaya parçalarından oluşan ve gökyüzüne uzanan mezar taşlarının üstünü mantarlar kaplamış, kimisi yana yatmış, kimisi dimdik duruyor, kimisi de yere yığılmıştı. Bırakın merhumun ismini veya doğum ve ölüm tarihini hangi kültüre ait olduğuna dair bile hiçbir iz yoktu taşların üzerinde. Ne zaman oraya dikildikleri belli olmayan ve onları oraya yerleştiren kültüre dair hiçbir iz taşımasalar da nesiller boyunca ayakta kalmaya muktedir olmaları tasarlanmıştı.

2003 ile 2007 yılları arasında her kilometresini dolaşarak fotoğrafladığım ve görüntüye aldığım Bakü-Tiflis-Ceyhan Boru Hattı’nda seyahat ederken bir başka gezide Toroslar’daki aynı köye yeniden yolum düştü. Bu defa Kahramanmaraş’a bağlı Geben kasabasında birkaç saat geçirecek ve bir kalkınma kooperatifi kuran gençlerle sohbet etme imkanı bulacaktım. Anadolu’ya gerçekleştirdiğim bunca seyahatin ışığında bu kasabadaki insanların diğer yerlerden farklı olduğunu görmüş, gençlerin yeni fikirlere ve projelere açık olmalarının yanısıra siyasi görüşlerinde de oldukça liberal ifadelere sahip olduklarını tespit etmiştim. Bu gençler kasabalarında gerçekleştirilebilecek kalkınma projelerine merakla yaklaşıyor, girişimci ruhlarını saklamıyorlardı.

Kasabanın gençleri benimle kurdukları bağlantıyı korudular ve bölgeye yaptığım bir başka seyahat sonrasında beni Geben’e davet ettiler. Nisan 2006’da üçüncü defa gittiğim Toroslar’daki bu güzel kasabanın insanlarını daha yakından tanıma imkanı buldum. Gençler kasabalarının tarihini merak ettiklerini dile getiriyor, diğer köy ve yerleşim yerlerine nazaran açık görüşlü yaşam biçimlerinin farkında olduklarını söylüyorlar, yakın tarihlerini daha iyi tanımak için kasabanın büyükleriyle bir amatör sözlü tarih projesi yapmak istediklerini dile getiriyorlardı. Proje kapsamında gençler yaşlılarla biraraya gelecek, onlara kasabanın geçmişine dair sorular yöneltecek, aldıkları cevapları da daha sonradan kağıda aktaracaklardı. Yapılacak röportajlarda 1915’e değin kasabada ve bu bölgede yaşamış olan Ermenilerin kültürüne ve Türklerle ilişkilerine dair de sorular olacaktı.

Sözlü tarih projesi yapılan birkaç ufak başvuru sonucunda hiçbir kurumsal veya maddi destek bulamadı ancak gençler yine de sohbetleri gerçekleştirmekte ısrarlıydılar ve bu amaçla büyükleriyle bir bir görüşmeye başladılar. Röportajlar konusunda bölgede kalkınma projelerinde danışmanlık yapan Özge Adıgüzel’in tavsiyelerini alan gençler, 10’un üzerinde yaşlıyla görüşüp bunları kağıda döktüler. Görüşmelerin bazılarının sonucunda Ermenilerle ortak yaşama dair ilgi çekici hatıralar ortaya çıktı. Bunlar arasında 1915’teki tehcir öncesinde ve esnasında bireysel veya grup olarak müslümanlığı seçmiş Ermeniler’in hikayeleri de dile getirilmişti. Müslümanlaşan (veya müslümanlaştırılan) bu Ermeniler, aynı toprakları paylaştıkları Türk ailelerin oğlanları veya kızlarıyla evlendirilmiş ve ortaya bugün de ‘Dönükler’ olarak adlandırılan yeni bir grup insan çıkmıştı. Röportajların birinci turu sona erdiğinde hikayenin bu kısmı ve Ermeniler’e dair hatırlananları anlatan bir belgesel çekmeye karar verdim ve 2006’nın Ağustos ayında çekim yapmak üzere Toroslar’a gittim.

Siyasi veya resmi hiçbir amaç taşımayan bu sözlü tarih projesinin günümüz Türkiyesi’nde ufak da olsa önemli bir adım olabileceğine inandım. Çünkü resmi tarih, Türkiye sınırları dışına çıkıldığında bizleri cevaplanması zor sorularla karşı karşıya bırakıyor, Türkiye içinde ise tartışılması bile gürültü ve kavgalara sebep veren bir ortam yaratıyordu. Resmi tarih, Türk tarafında olsun, Ermeni tarafında olsun, sıradan insana uzak geliyor, kavranılması güç uluslararası dengeleri ve 100 yıl öncesinin bizler tarafından haklı olarak anlaşılması zor sosyal, siyasi ve ekonomik şartlarını gündeme getiriyordu. Oysa olanları anlamak için belki de insan hikayelerinden yola çıkmakta fayda vardı ve Toroslar’da bir avuç gencin başladığı bu naçizane girişim, en azından o kasabaya dair hatırlanan şeyleri, olduğundan ne daha az, ne de daha fazla, yani tüm açıklığıyla gün ışığına çıkaracaktı. Öte yandan sözlü tarih, resmi tarihin çoğu zaman gözardı ettiği sosyolojik, antropolojik ve iktisadi birçok yerel bilinmeyeni ve yeni oluşumları da bilim adamlarının önüne getirebilirdi.

‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’ belgeselinin sinematografik konseptini geliştirirken kamerayı sadece bir izleyici olarak kullanmayı ve röportajları gerçekleştiren gençlerle kasabanın yaşlılarının dışında tutmak istiyordum. Yani yönetmen olarak kendimi soru soran araştırmacı kimliğinden kurtarmak ve tamamen objektif bir gözlemci rolünde tutmaya kararlıydım. Sonuçta ortaya çıkan 42 dakikalık belgesel, sadece kaydedilen görüntü ve seslerin bir anlam sırası ve bütünüyle biraraya getirildiği bir görsel hikayeye dönüştü. ‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’, dil, kan ve dinin birbiri içine karıştığı ‘Dönükler’in hikayesi ile nesillerin devamını ifade eden 3 günlük geleneksel bir Çukurova düğününü de birbiri içine geçirdi.

Röportajlarda ortaya çıkan ifadeler kimi zaman birbiriyle çelişkiliydi, dile getirilen bazı anılar yetersizdi çünkü birinci nesil tanıklar artık yaşamıyordu. Ama hatırlamak kadar unutmak da gerçeğe aitti ve belgeselde bunlara da yer vermeye çalıştım. Ancak bazı hatıralar son derece keskin ve açıktı, dolayısıyla Ermeniler’in 1915’te neden ve nasıl bu toprakları terk ettiğini birinci kaynaktan gözler önüne seriyordu. Belgesel sonucunda ortaya çıkan anlatılarla öykülerin bazıları zayıf veya önemsiz görünse de satırlar arasını okumayı sevenler ‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’ belgeselini, benim tesadüfen karşılaştığım o kimsesiz gibi görünen mezar taşlarının köşeleri kadar keskin ve zaman zaman da can acıtıcı bulacaktır.

Mehmet Binay / Yönetmen

Grave stones whispering long forgotten stories

2008-05-08T02:02:00.001-07:00

Graveyards have always struck me with their mystical images whilst traveling across vast plains of Central Asia, lonesome towns of the Caucasus and abandoned villages in the higher mountains of eastern Turkey. Graveyards dressed with carnations, portraits carved into black marble or simply in-scripts on plain grave stones... However travels always broaden our minds and bring many surprises opening new gates into an unknown side of foreign objects and our understanding of their hidden history.

Couple of years ago, I discovered a graveyard full of of peculiar grave stones whilst passing through a village in the higher Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey. Each one of the grave stones was stretching between a meter and three on various locations within the same village. Having stopped for a short break and a natural photo opportunity, I’d taken pictures of these grave stones. They attracted my interest because they did not carry an inscription whatsoever and their untamed and sharp forms created reflections in my mind of whispering memories of a long forgotten and hidden past. It was hard to tell whom these grave stones belonged and which civilisation might have brought them up to remain so eternal yet still unknown to future generations.

The same village would be another stop-over during my photographic journeys along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline which I’ve documented extensively kilometre by kilometre from the Caspian to Mediterranean Seas between 2003 and 2007. This time, I would spend couple of hours in the village of Geben (province of Kahramanmaras) and I engaged in pleasant conversations with village youngsters who had formed a village development association. Having spent years in eastern Anatolia on various trips, this small town and its people seemed different in many ways. They were curious about social development projects and played an active role in establishing small rural businesses. They were open to new ideas and came across extraordinarily liberal in their political views.

Youngsters at the village association kept our contact alive and invited me to another meeting while I was in the region on a different photo shoot. This time, they talked about their society openly and expressed an interest in an oral history project to be implemented with village elders. According to the planned “amateur” oral history project, youngsters would meet village elders and ask them various questions about their recent past including common life with Armenians who had lived in this region side by side with Turks just like anywhere else in Anatolia until their deportation in 1915.

The oral history project never attracted any institutional or financial support but the idea was interesting and youngsters were keen to undertake their interviews with elders. Having received methodological support from Ozge Adiguzel, who worked as a social development specialist in the region, interviews were conducted with over a dozen people in the village and some of them resulted in interesting transcripts presenting thought-provoking memories about common life with Armenians. They’d also included stories of some Armenians who converted to Islam either as individuals or in groups before and during the deportation. These people had intermarried with sons and daughters of Turkish families and formed a new identity for those who are still called “Dönükler - The Converts”. As the first round of interviews was conducted, I decided to film a documentary about this story and traveled to the Taurus Mountains in August 2006 to start filming work.

I truly believed in the importance of documenting this oral history project which had no political or official motives whatsoever where the only drive was village youngsters’ curiosity about their own past. Nevertheless, I was also aware of the sensitivity of filming a documentary about the Armenian issue in Turkey which still is a sensitive subject, provoking anger and protest against critics of the official Turkish policy as well as condemnation of some critical intellectuals to prison sentences and public dismay.

While developing my concept for “Whispering Memories”, I decided to use the camera as an observer and exclude myself as the director from any role where I would engage in active questionnaire with village elders who were directly interviewed by their youngsters. The result was a 42 minute long documentary film simply constructed of sound-bites acquired in two consecutive years between 2006 and 2007. A didactic narration was avoided but a visual story line was put together by including a three-day traditional summer wedding representing the continuation of generations and the mixture of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds in rural Turkey.

The stories were at times not clear enough as first hand witnesses had already passed away, but some of the interviewees talked very sharp and told what was truly remembered and, how and why Armenians left the village in 1915. Some of the memories -at the first instance- sounded vague and insignificant but those reading between the lines will find “Whispering Memories” as agonising as the sharp edges of grave stones which had struck me at the first glance.

Mehmet Binay / Director

“Whispering Memories”

ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR Hakkında

2008-04-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Anadolu'dan Fısıltılar Belgeseli, Toroslar’daki 3 günlük bir düğünü, yörenin kültürel zenginliğini ve tarihini anlatır. Düğün sırasında köyün yaşlılarıyla sohbet eden gençler, diğer halklarla birlikte olan yaşamlarını da öğrenirler.

‘Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’, bölgeyi terk etmek zorunda kalan Ermeniler’in değil, daha çok orada kalan ve sessizce müslümanlaşan ‘Dönükler’in hikayesidir.

About WHISPERING MEMORIES - the docu

2008-04-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

This documentary film tells the story of a three-day long rural wedding, the cultural richness and history of the Taurus mountain region in Turkey. Village youngsters curious to know of past times, engage in conversations with their elders.

‘Whispering Memories’ is not a story of Armenians who had to leave but of those who stayed behind and silently became Muslims; they are now called the 'Converts'.