KARMAmotion
The Ben Youssef family migrates every year from the desert-like landscape of Nkob to the green pastures of Igourdane. With their goats (number around 800) , donkeys, mules, camels and dogs, each summer they embark on a formidable journey of resilience by foot. Overcoming difficult weather conditions with hot and dry days and cold nights, with limited access to food and water, the family makes their way through uneven terrain with steep climbs and descents, to reach the agdal before the official opening where all the right holders are allowed to take their livestock into the pastures...
“Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The Sleeper must awaken”.
Filmed in a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Cappadocia, the documentary tells the story of a man and his son trying to revitalise the traditional methods of vine keeping. Through the fertilisation of the volcanic ash soil with pigeon guano, a unique relationship between people, pigeons and fairy chimneys a are revealed within this magical sentient ecology.
The film questions what heritage is to a landscape emptied by internal migration and is linked to a broader local community empowerment & multi modal storytelling project called "Fairy Dust Cappadocia".
2024
“The Earth is burning. Our home is on fire. The future lies in our hands”.
Every human being has the potential to become an Agent of Transformation, every home to become a seedbed for societal renewal,
and every culture to contribute to an inclusive Earth Home.Together, we can manifest this potential.Together, we can transform our divided world into a united home for the family of life.
This is the mission of Home for Humanity.
2024
“A story far from the eye but close to the heart ”.
Cihan , has not seen his sisters since more then a decade. When he was forced to leave them, they were only children. Having to endure difficult initial years of exile in Switzerland-torn apart in his past memories and future making, Cihan eventually loses himself to find himself again. Yet he tries to reconnect to his own land, people and village albeit remotely a beautiful mountain village in Van at the Kurdish speaking part of Turkey. During his sister Fatma’s wedding (sister number three), his entire family (tribe) and the invited wedding guests (extended family) send him messages of affection.
He finds out that his spirit and persona have not been forgotten by his fellow tribe as they manifest memories with him on various locations.As the film reveals the changes and transformations his village has gone since his departure, within the making of a personal yet collaborative auto- ethnography, the film touches upon the tribe's feelings of loss and pain alongside to their hopes and wishes for the long awaited reunion.
The film is a loving exploration and a vehicle in reuniting the one who was forced to leave and those who were left behind (an entire community).
A common tragic destiny of loss and separation in an era of forced migrations and exile, this film intends to transform reality.
Will Cihan ever see his loved ones ; family and tribe ever again, can this film change his sorrowful reality?
2026
A ballad, narrates poetic stories in short stanzas, hence this self-reflective musical documentary mirrors’ the life of Maisa Alhafez a musician and a Syrian refugee living in Istanbul. The film is about her longing to her loved ones as she tries to make a place for her self in the world of the displaced. Her family still in Syria, Maisa's true love (fiance) is in the Netherlands. As of the current EU-Turkey border regime, to unite is very challenging. Not giving up, Maisa works hard for her vision to transform the borders; by building a multicultural community “The oriental Istanbul Mosaic Choir”. A diverse family that sings together, in which she believes through music and love one can heal the wounds of her people and children.
Refugee here I am, is a musical documentary based on the life of a Congolese Musician Enzo Ikah, a refugee and a renown reggae artist living in Istanbul. Making the first legal reggae album in Turkey, Enzo gives hundreds of concerts and appears in various media chanels throughout the country. Through his music, Enzo raises his voice and creates dialogue with various authorities. He creates awareness about those lives in hardship, coming from war torn countries and conflicted areas.
Despite his growing fame ,Enzo does not give up living in his small room in Tarlabasi which he shares with the newcoming Syrian neighbours. He composes all his songs, day dreaming in his room, with the determination to raise hope among the refugee youth. The documentary, explores a single man’s extraordinary struggle, portraying his very creative way of reaching out to the public, as Enzo transforms his life shaken under opression and hardship into an enchanting life musical.With his film, Enzo intends to advocate that every person should be able to realize their potentials make use of their talents and realize their dreams, despite the borders.
The Documentary tells the migration story of a nomadic family (known to be from the “Sarıkeçili tribe”),herding 500 goats in Southern Turkey. Through an intimate portrait of the family, the documentary conveys human-environmental relationships in seek of how the family’s traditional local knowledge , the process of the migration and their living life style in general benefits to the biodiversity of the region. A research team consisting of an anthropologist, ethno botanist and environmental activist also share their thoughts and observations during the migration.
The film intends to raise awareness and open up discussion on ways to support and protect nomadic pastoralists' livelihood rights as well as understanding their cultural conservation practices and its effects on enhancement of biodiversity of the region.
Every year, Amchi Karma Chodon travels to the most remote villages in Ladakh to raise awareness on women and child healthcare and to train her students.
Amchi Karma Chodon is a teacher at a residential training school for Amchis in Ladakh. The work she does together with the Ladakh Society for Traditional Medicines, led to government recognition of Tibetan medicine (which is based on Buddhist cosmology and influenced by Asia’s own holistic medical traditions). Yet this film , tells the story of an inspirational teacher, giving a glimpse of a real life dedicated to social work and public healthcare....
Cappadocia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985 is a popularly visited touristic site by millions of visitors each year, for its' surreal looking moonlike landscape and undeniably rich Christian Heritage.Located in the heartland of Anatolia in Turkey, this place still remains to be inhabited by its own secluded, hospitable yet conservative Muslim people, whom having been experiencing radical changes due to the international development of tourism.
The social transformation that is being experienced since the last thirty years of the introduction of tourism in the area, has leaded to the displacement of the self-sustaining local community from the center of the heritage attraction and fastened the destruction of the locally known "fairy chimneys", volcanic rock cones where people, their animals and pigeons used to dwell in.
The documentary tells the story of three different villages; 9 individuals. All interlinked yet unattached from the common realities of each others' lives, they comment on the daily issues and highlight the important themes that may be of interest not only for the curious anthropologists or protective conservationists, but for everyone who travels or traveled at some point, from home to someone else's home...