WHISPERING MEMORIES AND PREJUDICES BROKEN WITH ART

WHISPERING MEMORIES AND PREJUDICES BROKEN WITH ART

Amberin Zaman
TARAF Newspaper
Yerevan

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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.”

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