Incomplete Sentences
Adar Bozbay
Turkey. 2022. 58 min
Aslı Erdoğan, worldwide known author, activist, columnist have hit silence after she fled to Germany. Incomplete Sentences is a feature documentary on Erdoğan’s literature and life story that lead to a life in exile. She left Turkey after being unlawfully detained as a result of current government’s increasing pressure on writers, journalist, academics etc. Now, in Frankfurt, she is struggling while everybody is waiting for her to write again. Aslı starts telling her story just after getting out of prison. Aslı together with the director, Adar, wondering in streets of İstanbul, talks about herself. Sometimes streets, sometimes an apartment building invokes stories and sometimes it’s her books. She reads parts from her books and explains the stories behind.
Aslı then goes to Germany to receive the Erich Maria Remarque Award and yet, she doesn’t return. That’s how her exile life in Frankfurt starts; which she likens to a semi-open prison. This situation gradually disrupts her health and keeps her away from writing. I feel like I’ve been exiled from my mother tongue, it’s very strange, like my relation to it is wounded.
The director develops a different kind of relation with Aslı; as a helping friend, taking care of Aslı’s house, watering her flowers, delivering books and notes to Frankfurt, while she witnesses Aslı’s trauma first hand. There is a lot of support for Aslı, she goes from one country to another, attending audience solidarity events, receiving awards. The documentary will follow the steps of Aslı in different places around the world and with an attempt to hear her silence.
Continue reading Incomplete Sentences (Adar Bozbay) Turkey →