WHAT THE WIND TOOK AWAY

a film by Helin Celik and Martin Klingeböck
Documentary Film | 75 Min. | Austria/Turkey 2017

Film Festivals & Awards (Selection)

WINNER: Best Austrian Film - this human world International Human Rights Film Festival 2017. Vienna
WINNER: Austrian Documentary Award - ethnocineca. International Documentary Film Festival 2017. Vienna
WINNER: FIPRESCI International Critics Prize - Documentarist. 12th Istanbul Documentary Days 2019
NOMINEE: Human Rights Official Competition - Festival Int. de Cine Independiente BAFICI 2018. Buenos Aires
NOMINEE: Filmmaker Award - Margaret Mead Film Festival 2018. New York
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Duisburger Filmwoche (Germany) 2017. Duisburg
OFFICIAL SELECTION: East Silver Market (Czech Republic) 2017. Jihlava
OFFICIAL SELECTION: International Ethnographic Film Festival (TIEFF) 2017. Taiwan
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Ethnogaphic Film Festival Macedonia 2017. Kratovo
OFFICIAL SELECTION: International Human Rights Film Festival (Pakistan) 2018. Islamabad
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Inncontro Film Festival (Austria) 2018. Innsbruck
OFFICIAL SELECTION: International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival (Estonia) 2018. Pärnu
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Arab Film Festival (Germany) 2018. Tübingen
OFFICIAL SELECTION: FIFEQ Festival International du Film Ethnographique du Québec (Canada) 2019
Presentation at European Parliament (Belgium) 2017. Brussels
Presentation at Universität für künstlerische Gestaltung Linz (Austria) 2018. Linz

Credits

with Hedil, Ismael, Mayk, Kheri, Eween
Naam, Saad, Maks, Fahed, Waed, Suhayep
and Wahida, Delwin, Pakiza, Leila and many others...

Idea Helin Celik
Directed by Helin Celik, Martin Klingenböck
Produced by Martin Klingenböck, Helin Celik
Cinematography Martin Klingenböck, Deniz Blazeg
Dramaturgy & Editing Ascan Breuer, Dokumentarisches Labor
Dramaturgical Advice by Dieter Pichler
Sound Design Roumen Dimitrov, Adriana Milanova
Music, Sound Mixing Roumen Dimitrov
Translation Ibrahim Abbas, Hayfa Kahraman, Delras Permous
German Subtitles Ascan Breuer, Martin Klingenböck, Stefania Schenk Vitale
English Subtitles Stefania Schenk Vitale, Helin Celik
Post Production Assistants Armin Kirchner, Berta Güerre, Simone Hart, Julia Schmidt
Color Grading Daniel Hollerweger
Retouching / VFX Micha Elias Pichlkastner
Graphic Design David Einwaller
DCP Authoring Johannes Gierlinger
Distributor sixpack film
Production Company Klingenböck Filmproduktion

Film Festivals & Awards (Selection)
New York - Margaret Mead Film Festival 2018 - Nominee Filmmaker Award
Buenos Aires - Festival Int. de Cine Independiente BAFICI 2018 - Nominee Human Rights Official Competition
Duisburg - Duisburger Filmwoche 2017
Vienna - ethnocineca. International Documentary Film Festival 2017 - Winner Austrian Documentary Award
Vienna - this human world International Human Rights Film Festival 2017 - Winner Best Austrian Film
Taiwan - International Ethnographic Film Festival (TIEFF) 2017
Kratovo - Ethnographic Film Festival Macedonia 2017
Jihlava - East Silver Market 2017

Supported by

Bundeskanzleramt Österreich
Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich
Land Niederösterreich
Österreichische HochschülerInnenschaft
Fakultäts-, Zentrums- und Studienvertretungen der Universität Wien
Gemeinde Wieselburg-Land
Die Grünen - Die Grüne Alternative Bundespartei

"Time in motion... as everything else in fear and worry.
The fear is embracing the invisible hands of hope and the worry is letting the wind in,
to take an unforgettable step towards roads of change.
The change that came with the wind is uncaging the oceans of beauty.
To a secure zone, in a tired rush…"

Despite having lost everything, the Yazidi women Hedil and Naam are struggling for a humane life for their families. In the Yazidi massacre by the terrorist organisation "Islamic State" they were forced to leave their homeland and have finally found protection in a refugee camp. Their situation seems hopeless, stuck between the dictatorship of ISIS and their dream destination: Europe.

"What the wind took away" is a deeply poetic approach to the very personal stories of these Yazidi women and a lyrical journey through their everyday lives in the refugee camp.

 sixpack film: 

    In elaborated images, What the wind took away shows life in a refugee camp for the Yazidis, a Kurdish ethnic group, in southeast Turkey (Fidanlik) in 2015. Two women, Hedil and Naam, provide the narrative, which focuses solely on what defines the women´s and their families´ everyday lives: cooking, eating, washing, building a kitchen tent, and planting a bed of parsley. The film doesn´t deal primarily with the tragic nature of the refugees´ fate, but instead, offers richly detailed, long arcs, describing the tasks of daily life—and how they have to be done in the space and time of the tent camp as heterotopia (Michel Foucault). 

We become acquainted with the tent as an interim site situated on the fringe of society due to its deviance from the norm; characterized by rituals that replace everyday actions. The refugee camp´s tent city functions as an "other space" whose time is also an "other" time (heterochrony). What the wind took away presents how the little actions of everyday life merge to a spatio-temperal experience, and how the stories of flight, normality, and desire—but also of trauma and pain provide an emotional frame for the matters that must be taken care of on a daily basis. And the film lets us contemplate where and when life in a refugee camp might start and end: how do you decide when to leave this interim place where you are at least intermittently safe, and take off into an uncertain future. (Andrea B. Braidt) 

Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt
  
    Duisburger Filmwoche: 

  "Beete anlegen, um neuen Grund zu kultivieren, Verschläge zimmern, um Raum zu gewinnen: Anbau am monotonen Zwischenort. Die jesidischen Mütter Hedil und Naam sind mit ihren Familien vor dem IS in ein südosttürkisches Camp geflüchtet. Stolz pflegen sie Bräuche und Erinnerungen, halten aus und säen Zukunft."

    This Human World - Int. Human Rights Film Festival Vienna: 

  „Wir Jesiden sind zu Tauben geworden. Tauben ohne Flügel“, sagt Hedil. Mit ihrer Familie sitzt sie in einem jesidischen Flüchtlingscamp in der Osttürkei fest, so wie auch Naam und viele andere Jesid_innen aus dem Nordirak. Sie mussten vor dem IS fliehen, der ihre Heimatstadt zerstört hat und alle Jesid_innen ausrotten möchte. Der Film zeigt das trostlose und ärmliche Leben in der Zeltstadt und die Familien bei ihrem Versuch, Normalität herzustellen und Gewohnheiten zu bewahren. Die beiden Frauen erzählen von dem schönen Leben, das sie in der Heimat hatten und von Not und Gefahr auf ihrer Flucht." (AS)