Slow Death

Synopsis

The Afşin-Elbistan Plain is among Türkiye’s richest farming regions. It also contains the country’s largest lignite deposits. Decades of extracting lignite and burning it in thermal power plants have depleted the region’s water, degraded the land, and filled the air with ash and toxic fumes. The destruction of nature is reflected in human bodies through illness and death, as well as in changes to other forms of life that are difficult to reverse.

Told through the experiences and testimonies of local residents, the documentary captures this long, multi-layered destruction carried out in the name of “development,” while focusing on the inseparable relationship between the environment, public health, and labour. Against a disaster normalised over the years, it sets collective memory, struggle, and the possibility of life sprouting anew.

Director Biography

İlkay Nişancı

Director, cinematographer, and editor born in Ereğli in 1976. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Radio, Television and Cinema, his master’s degree in Journalism, and his PhD in Radio, Television and Cinema at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Communication. After joining the faculty as a lecturer, he taught film directing, cinematography, and editing in the Cinema Department and coordinated the faculty’s film workshops. Films he made with his students have screened at international documentary festivals and received awards. He continues his academic career as an assistant professor at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Communication.

Credits

Writing / Senaryo

İlkay Nişancı, Aslı Odman

Sinematografi / Cinematography

Reşat Okan Candemir

Editing / Kurgu

İlkay Nişancı

Music / Müzik

Türkay Nişancı

Sound

Sedat Polat

Cast / Kadro

Aslı Odman

Production / Yapım

Hakan Fıçıcı, RPT Film