Director Zeynep Dadak Turkey/Germany 2020
85 Min., OV with English subs
İstanbul, the same route after three and a half centuries. Inspired by Istanbul-born Armenian intellectual Eremya Celebi Komurciyan’s travel diaries from the 17th century, Invisible to the Eye(Ah Gözel İstanbul) retraces his itinerary in today’s Istanbul. As a cinematic travelogue, the film explores Komurciyan’s farsighted relationship with the concepts of looking, seeing, and viewing on many different layers. In his book, History of Istanbul: Istanbul in the Seventeenth Century, Komurciyan talks to the reader as if he is holding a camera. When his “cinematic eye” is translated to a contemporary setting, an endless path through the multifaceted visual history of this long-standing city emerges.
Zeynep Dadak holds a PhD in film from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her debut feature, The Blue Wave, premiered at the 64th Berlinale. Including Ah Gözel İstanbul (2020), her films in different formats and forms have been screened at festivals such as Rotterdam, Sheffield and Dokufest. A Medienboard and Berlin Senate fellow, Zeynep is based in Berlin where she teaches film classes while working on her new film.
