(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Filmmaker Asli Özarslan first saw Leyla Imret in a newspaper. Imret had lived in Germany since childhood, but had now returned to his hometown in southeastern Anatolia after 20 years. Well back, she was elected mayor – the youngest in Turkey. At that time Özarslan was looking for a topic for his exam film. She was captivated by this young, engaged woman and decided to find out who the person Leyla Imret was. What was initially supposed to be a film portrait of a young mayor, however, took an unexpected turn as political tensions grew in connection with the national elections in 2015. Language Leyla became not only a portrait of a young politician, but an intense narrative that opened the eyes to the explosive political climate in Turkey.
To turn back. The film opens with images of violence between Kurdish civilians and official representatives of the Turkish authorities. With its predominantly Kurdish population, Leila's hometown of Cizre has been part of the Turkish Kurdish conflict arena for decades. Leila's father was a well-known Kurdish guerrilla warrior. When he was killed, Leila's mother decided to send her daughter to relatives in Germany, where she could be safe. Then she was five years old.
While living in Germany, Leyla constantly felt that something was missing in her life. And when she returned to Cizre after twenty years of absence, she rediscovered a world from which she had only vague memories at that time. The region seemed to have calmed down considerably since then, so Leyla decided to leave Germany for good. She would return to Turkey to help rebuild her childhood city. The conservative community she left as a child welcomed her back and saw a future in her. She planned to create a normal life for residents by creating parks and playgrounds, giving Cizre's children the opportunity to have the childhood she never had.
Personal focus. The film does not aim to shed light on what is an ancient and very complex conflict in Southeast Turkey. Instead, it focuses on a committed woman who made a personal decision driven by feelings of belonging, responsibility and hope, and who inevitably ended up as part of the politically and socially complex web of the region.
The film has become an intense tale of the explosive political climate in Turkey.
The first time after she became mayor, everything seems to be going well. Only Leila's mother is skeptical and worried because of her daughter's return and political involvement. However, this can easily be dismissed as nothing more than maternal anxiety.
In the first half of the film, the camera follows Leyla in her daily work as mayor. These scenes are clipped with the stories she tells about time with the family in Cizre and in Germany. Regardless of the circumstances, she never seems to forget that she is a politician with an official role. It can thus be difficult to read Leyla's personal reactions, although there is no doubt that they are there. When asked if she is scared, she replies that she is scared of her people. The more we see her, the more the person Leyla feels like a mystery.
But paradoxically, her unwavering calmness points to something moving. When she mixes with the crowd, shakes hands and visits construction sites and neighborhoods, it often happens that the young mayor seems terribly alone. She never fully embraces her surroundings. Perhaps it is precisely this contrast between her outward tranquility and her quiet solitude that makes her want to get closer to her so quickly.
Violent election tensions. The film takes an unexpected turn around the November 2015 elections, as tensions quickly escalated into violent conflict. Turkish security forces besiege Cizre and impose an eight-day curfew. Leyla is removed from her post with accusations that she incites hatred and supports terrorism, and is forced to hide. A new curfew follows in December 2015, and lasts for almost three months.
On footage made during this period while living in hiding, Leyla seems to have changed. When she is no longer mayor, she is reduced to a young woman in danger. The old ghosts of the past come back to life, and her hopes and determination shrink into fear and despair.
The young mayor seems terribly alone.
From this point on, the narrative is no longer character driven; instead, the documentary follows the political events and consequences they have. The film team looks set to leave Turkey. The pictures of a Leyla in hiding are the latest footage of her in the rest of the film. The family's worries and the lack of further recording leave an uncomfortable void, leaving you hungry for an enlightening ending: where Leyla is now and how she is doing. Will she be able to return to a fairly normal life? Here it is that her mother's fear becomes reality, and the world that Leyla wanted to change instead sucked her in and made her disappear from her own story.
Language Leyla was shown during the Movies That Matter festival this spring. Leyla Imret was invited as a guest but could not come. She is currently refused to leave Turkey, and can probably expect a longer prison sentence. At the family's request, the film is not shown in Turkey and will hardly be shown
there for the foreseeable future.
