I(s)land

Synopsis

This is Ahmet’s story: “Ahmet the Muleteer” to those who disliked him, “Ahmet the Village Headman” to everyone else.

He lived on Avşa Island and was self-taught. As the island’s once-idyllic landscape disappeared beneath concrete, tourist waste, and marine pollution, he tried to protect his land using ecological farming methods he learned from books and his little radio. He inspired actors, writers, and students.

After Ahmet’s death, the camera stays with his family and friends, and the story continues. At its center now is his son, trying to keep the land and his father’s values alive. And, of course, the island… An island affected by the gradual unraveling of rural life, as well as by the severe pollution of the Marmara, an inland sea dying between the Black Sea and the Aegean.

Director Biography

Nazlı Ökten

A lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Galatasaray University and a researcher affiliated with the university’s Center for Social Research. She also teaches on distance-learning platforms such as AUZEF and Neoskola. Ökten was among the founders of Hayalet Gemi magazine, has hosted programs on Açık Radyo and Medyascope, and served on the editorial boards of Cogito and Strata. With sociology as her point of departure, her work moves across the borders of art, feminism, politics, and psychoanalysis. Along this interdisciplinary theoretical path, she teaches, writes, translates, edits, and curates. Her documentary work is the latest stage of this journey.

Credits

Cinematography / Sinematografi

Fatih Pınar

Editing / Kurgu

Ömer Cebeci, Çağatay Kanlı

Music / Müzik

Felix Mendelssohn

Sound / Ses

Ömer Cebeci

Production / Yapım

Nazlı Ökten