Whispering Walls (Eylem Kaftan) Turkey |

Whispering Walls
Eylem Kaftan
Turkey. 2025. 70 min

Whispering Walls is a creative, cinematic, and artistic meditation on a Turkish artist in New York in 1960’s trying to navigate his way in a complicated time in American history when people were out on the streets for civil rights and when art was a true act of struggle expressing itself in the most intense way on street walls.

Set against the backdrop of whispering walls of the world, the artist’s monumental photographic archive of urban walls in 114 countries which chronicles the winds of societal change from 60’s to 2000’s, the film exposes dazzling works of Doğançay’s lifetime ouvre, some of them released for the first time in this documentary, some of them defined as masterpieces as world’s greatest artistic monuments like Metropolitan Museum of Art and question why they are still relevant today.

Through Burhan’s journey, the film delves into themes of resilience, the search for artist’s signature style and the impact of a life companion who backs the artist. I believe my film aligns with your commitment to promote diverse narratives as Whispering Walls aims to create a collage, a ‘double realism’ in its style just like Doğançay achieved to do in his paintings.

EYLEM KAFTAN

Born in Turkey, Kaftan completed a B.A. in Philosophy at Bosphorous University in Istanbul. She completed her M.A in film and video at York University (Canada) in 2002. Her first documentary, Faultlines, investigates the aftermath of the earthquake which hit Turkey in 1999. Kaftan then wrote and directed Vendetta Song (2005) produced in co- production with the National Film Board of Canada and DLI productions. This gripping hour long documentary about her personal journey into the killing of her aunt in a small village in Turkey was broadcast on Vision TV and Télé-Québec in Canada and has received several awards including CIDA Prize for Best Canadian Documentary on International Development at Hot Docs; the Quebec Film Critics Association Award for Best Medium Length Documentary; Best Documentary, Calgary International festival and Best Documentary, Female Eye Film Festival. Her third documentary Bledi, This is Our Home tells the story of the non-status Algerians and their struggle to remain in Canada. The film is made for the Quebec broadcaster Télé-Québec. Kaftan produced and directed several documentaries for Al Jazeera English channel. Some of them are; The Passion and Penalty, a film about the matchfixing scandal in Turkish football, Sarajevo, My Love, a film about a Serbian general who defended Sarajevo during the siege of the city. She also made short docs for Al Jazeera Plus channel. Eylem completed her first feature film, called Hive (2020). The film is about a female beekeper’s struggle with wild bees and a bear. Hive (Keeping The Bees) travelled many international film festivals, winning awards at many prestigious festivals and is shown at Netflix worldwide. Her new feature documentary A Day, 365 Hours which received HBO Award at Trieste Film Festival (Last Stop Trieste), did its world premiere at 28th Sarajevo Film Festival and is shown at many A Festivals like Tallin Black Nights Film Festival, Docpoint Helsinki and Geneva Human Rights Film Festival. The film received several awards at major festivals. Eylem is currently developing another feature, A Real Woman which won TRT Coproduction award and received Telefilm Canada funding. She is in post production for her new doc, Whispering Walls, about a wellknown Turkish American painter Burhan Doğançay.

Filmography
2024: Whispering Walls, 70 minutes, In postproduction
2024:A Real Woman, in Development. (Minister of Culture of Turkey, Telefilm Canada)

2023: A Day, 365 Hours, (80 min) Director, Writer (Crotian Film Fund)
2019: The Hive (93 min) Director, Writer (TRT, Minister of Culture of Turkey)
2016: Rabia hospital massacre (44 min) Director, Writer (Al Jazeera English)
2015: The Emptiness in me (60 min) Director, Writer (TRT Documentary)
2015: A Farm (Documentary series, 26 min) Director, Presenter (TRT Documentary) 2013:Seeing isn’t Everything (44 min) Director, Writer, Producer (Al Jazeera English) 2013:Sarajevo, My Love (44 min) Director, Writer, Producer (Al Jazeera English)
2012: The Passion and the Penalty, (44 min) Director, Writer, Producer ( Al Jazeera English)
2010: Dreamcatchers, (22 min X4) Director, Writer (Al Jazeera documentary)
2006: Bledi, This is Our Home, (52 min), Co-director, Co-writer, Productions Multi-Monde (Tele Quebec)
2005: Vendetta Song (52 min), Director, Writer, Researcher, National Film Board of Canada 2002: Faultlines, (52 min) Director, Producer, Writer