Those Roads of Fatsa

THOSE ROADS OF FATSA
(2021, 87 mins)
+ Nurşen Bakir in conversation

The inspirational struggle that took place in the Turkish district of Fatsa in the 1970s is remembered for all the women and men who strove to find collective solutions to the problems of the people. It is a story of the hopes and visions of a different path for Turkey as a country.

Local bosses and moneylenders dominated the hazelnut production in Fatsa, keeping people close to starvation. Socialists helped to organise the growers and mount a challenge that led to victory and the formation of a hazelnut cooperative. But in Fatsa and elsewhere, organised fascists attacked socialists and other progressive people. In response, resistance committees sprung up across Turkey.

Fatsa's resistance committee not only succeeded in driving out the fascists, but also sought to improve women’s rights, mediated in conflicts and organised communal work. As the confidence of the people increased, Fatsa entered a path of direct participatory city administration, organising the distribution of food for those in need and a fair distribution of hazelnut shells, used as fuel for heating in winter, and fixing roads and bridges in dire need of repair and the canals which were overflowing with mud. It all came to an end with the military coup of 1980.

Nurşen Bakir's documentary is a vast tapestry woven from archive
footage which she uncovered together with interviews with those who lived through these years in Fatsa.

Nurşen Bakir (b. 1962, Iznik, Turkey) was a philosophy student in Ankara before moving to the USA where she studied cinema. Over the years, she has completed a number of experimental and documentary films. She worked on various films in the Netherlands (most notably with Frans van de Staak). In Turkey she was one of the founders of the filmmaking collective Sine-Yol. She has taught cinema at various universities in Turkey.

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