In The Connected, which I wrote the script of and co-directed with Onur Gökmen, we focus on how the burden of Turkish identity that was constructed with the late modernity starting in 1850s and continues with the foundation of the republic, echoes in today’s younger generation.
Our protagonists are three young adults with vulnerable dispositions. They encounter six different antagonists played by the same actress in dream-like spaces with consistent grotesque performances. Their confidence is shaken and they go to a field where they are awaited by an unfamiliar object that they call yatır (a tomb, where a holy saint lies). As they get drunk, they are possessed by different characters that are inscribed in the narratives of the Turkish nation state in a trance-like predicament.
The Connected is commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation; the video presented as part of the exhibition titled Belkıs Hanım and Onur Efendi, conceived as a collaboration with Onur Gökmen is co-supported by SAHA and SALT.
fatma belkıs 