Invisible to the Eye

Invisible to the Eye

Turkey | 2020 |Documentary | 85’ | Turkish

Inspired by Istanbul-born Armenian intellectual Eremya Celebi Komurciyan's travel diaries from the 17th century, Invisible to the Eye traces this particular itinerary in today’s Istanbul. In his book titled History of Istanbul: Istanbul in the Seventeenth Century, Komurciyan talks to the reader as if he has a camera in hand. When we translate his ‘cinematic eye’ to a contemporary setting, there emerges an endless path on to the multifaceted visual history of this long-standing city. Emulating Komurciyan's book, the film is composed of eight episodes. Integrating various types of narrative forms, shooting formats and narrational moods, the camera follows a person in a yellow coat and becomes his ‘eye.’ The emphasis is always on how we literally ‘see’ the city through a compilation of stories, myths and architectural texture that have accumulated over centuries. Tracing continuities as well as ruptures in places, people and stories, we reimagine a cosmopolitan Istanbul.

Writer and Director: Zeynep Dadak

Director of Photography: Florent Herry

Editing: Eytan İpeker

Music: Erdem Helvacıoğlu

Producer: Zeynep Dadak

Co-producers: Tanja Georgieva-Waldhauer, Aslı Dadak, Pınar Bağcı

Production Company: Fenafilm

Zeynep Dadak

Zeynep Dadak holds a PhD from the Cinema Studies Department at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her debut feature film Mavi Dalga (The Blue Wave, 2013), co-directed by Merve Kayan, had its international premiere at the 64th Berlin Film Festival, receiving many awards in and outside Turkey. Her films including her feature length documentary Ah Gözel İstanbul (Invisible to the Eye, 2020) were screened at prestigious film festivals such as Rotterdam, Sheffield, AFI and Dokufest. Zeynep Dadak was selected for the Medienboard Artist in Residence in Berlin in 2018 and Berlin Senate Fellowship in 2019. She directed a mini-series called Terapist (The Therapist) for the online platform GAIN in 2021. Currently, Zeynep teaches film at Istanbul Kadir Has University and NYU Berlin; she works as a consultant and tutor for Berlinale Co-Production Market and Torino Film Lab. Based in Berlin and Istanbul, she is working on her new feature film, Electric Sleep.

* All events are free. Participation is limited to 120 people and the entrance invitations can be obtained 1 hour before the event from Akbank Sanat Info Desk. Events will be held in Turkish.