Şu An Okunan
Inside

Inside

Inside
13′ 06”, 2020, Turkish/Kurdish (with English text and subtitles)
Camera and editing: Elif Ergezen
English subtitles: Yetkin Nural
Kurdish – Turkish translations: Devrim Demir, Mahdî Ahmedpouryan

“What if this is not the kind of life you want?” Elif Ergezen builds her video-essay Inside on this question. Herzog’s penguins appear on the quarantine screens. One of them leaves the camera frame, walking towards another life… With the coronavirus pandemic, people who have the luxury to stay home shut themselves in to preserve their life. In the same world, there are people who do the opposite: ones who are willing to leave the world of living and get out of the frame, fighting for a fair life. In Inside, while Ergezen finds sanctuary in letters, poems and films during the quarantine process, she also conveys the words and thoughts of people who are on ‘life fast’ for the right for a fair trial to her audience. It is not ‘from inside to outside’, it is just ‘inside’. Because Ergezen’s film questions the borders between ideas such as inside and outside, prison and outside world, imprisonment and freedom during a time that not only the imprisoned, but everyone who has the means to do so stays in.

Elif Ergezen
After graduating from Galatasaray University’s Faculty of Communications, Ergezen finished her master’s degree on cinema at Sorbonne University. Death of the Poet (2009), a film on Laz poet Hasan Helimişi’s life story and Elif (2007), the story of Elif Kanlıoğlu who lost her life at the 10th October Ankara Massacre, are among the documentaries Ergezen directed. Ergezen has also been working in editing processes of various films and giving film workshops to kids since 2007. She wrote a children’s book named ‘Evro’.

This video is produced for Altyazı Fasikül: Free Cinema’s Looking Outside series. Following the first screening of the video, a live conversation (in Turkish) with Elif Ergezen was realized.