The documentary film "Siya Avê" by journalist Metin Yoksu, produced by the MA news agency, is freely accessible on the Internet. The film tells the story of two women whose village in Hasankeyf was flooded by the Ilisu dam.
Due to the circumstances surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, which paralyses public life in many countries and forces people into domestic isolation, more and more filmmakers are deciding to make their works available online. This is also the case with journalist Metin Yoksu, who has put his documentary film "Siya Avê" (The Shadow of Water) on the video portal YouTube free of charge. The film tells the story of two women whose village in the Tigris valley in Hasankeyf was flooded by the Ilisu dam. One of the women is the mother of the journalist.
The Ilisu Dam, which had been in planning since the 1950s and was commissioned a week ago, is highly controversial - among other things because, in addition to the Tigris Valley, the Hasankeyf cultural site was also flooded. According to the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive, more than 80 percent of the twelve-thousand-year-old ancient city is now under water, and more than 80,000 residents have been driven from their ancestral homes. Nobody knows yet how many species will become extinct, because the results of biological investigations have not been completed and already available results are withheld from the public.
Idea for the film was born after lamentation
The shooting for "Siya Avê", which was produced by the Mezopotamya news agency (MA), began in August 2019 and lasted about three months. Metin Yoksu explained how the idea came about as follows: "The village of Ewtê, where my mother grew up, is one of the villages in Hasankeyf flooded by the Ilisu dam. When my mother Firyaz Yoksu heard this, she sang a Kurdish lament out of sadness. Later I learned that another woman called Habibe Saçık, who also spent her childhood in the same village, also sang a lament. This is how the idea of addressing this both sad and interesting coincidence began. My mother told me that she wanted to see her village for the last time before the flooding, so the filming for Siya Avê began".
In mid-February the documentary had its premiere in Batman, but after further screenings in Siirt all dates had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The film can be seen under the following link:
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