QUICK’N DIRTY: LIVE FROM TALLINN
An erstwhile teacher, who once recorded learners on a video camera, has seen the Turkish town of Şırnak devastated by political clashes. Returning to the place he once called his home, writer/director M. Tayfur Aydın discovers much has transformed, and little for the better. Nevertheless, Aydm elects to rediscover the children who dreamt big and lived large in classrooms.
Deeply moving, and produced with a thirst for truth,Far Away is a timely reminder that cruelty is humanity’s greatest failing. Anyone hoping that a reunion with a former student will will be shocked by the apathy towards memory. Those Aydm comes across either do not remember him, or pretend not to. The town in question is a place of fragile women’s rights, and devastation from carnage across the streets.
Putting it into context, the locals in this Kurdish region that borders Turkey, Iraq and Syria face harsh imprisonment if they disobey the regulations. Visitors nominally are only granted permission to enter if they have a reason to do so. Everything about this place is authoritative and strict. The new reality is balanced by past footage of children with few care’s in the world.
The point is clear: infant dreams are squashed by militia goals and uprisings. Far Away spans nearly two decades in scope, beginning in 2007 when the students committed their goals to video, up to the present day. The clashes between Turkish government forces and Kurdish armed groups, which erupted in 2015/2016, shifted the dimensions and internal journeys on which these kids – later adults – embarked. Where the documentary team could have got lost in the archive footage, the focus is on the unpleasant present, and the edits from colourful classrooms to cold, grey streets is done exceedingly well.
This isn’t a documentary about conflict; it’s about community. There are the tiny glances that break behind people putting on their greatest poker faces coming to terms with the current reality. Perching outside houses, the director uses his camera in order to peek into a domicile barely sheltered from the harshness outside. As Far Away continues, the mementos of younger students double as a shield of sorts. Theatre, the activity they engaged in, shouldered the students with the emotional equipment to carry on with their lives. By capturing happiness from within, these learners now had the opportunity to discover solace at the darkest and most desolate of moments. If people cannot find happiness from an external world, then it needs to come from within. Humans are determined by choice and purpose, through good times and awful.
M. Tayfur Aydın has curated something that is uncomfortable and and yet beautiful to watch. Despite the genre, it comes off more like a short story, or elongated piece of poetry, than a conventional documentary feature. This movie is ripe for a sequel 20 years in the future, where it will showcase what happened next to Aydm and the students he chased after. Human beings constantly transforming, transmuting and transconfiguring. The camera is the ideal device to commit perspectives to the historical archives.
This is an ambitious movie, and perhaps a little brief at 88 minutes. Some points – such as the alarming damage armed conflict put on the people filmed – are dealt with a somewhat hastily. This, however, does not compromise the integrity of the piece. This is heartfelt cinema worth a viewing (or two).
Far Away just premiered in the Doc@PÖFF International Competition of the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
