Filming Over Nearly Five Years

Director Fatih Akin, a third-generation Turkish immigrant based in Germany, has produced numerous masterpieces, including "Head-On," which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival; "The Edge of Heaven," which earned the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival; and "Soul Kitchen," which received a double win for the Special Jury Prize and the Young Cinema Award at the Venice Film Festival. "TIRANZO Rhapsody: A Village's Big Garbage Dispute" is a documentary completed by this talented young master with the sole intention of appealing to the world about the current state of his homeland.

Director Akin first visited Çamburnu village in Trabzon, the hometown of his grandparents located on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey, in 2005. While deeply moved by its breathtakingly beautiful scenery, he was also struck by the news that a landfill facility was planned for construction.

To document the beloved natural landscape, the memorable final scene of "The Edge of Heaven" was filmed in Çamburnu. Driven by a sense of mission to record this situation, he embarked on a nearly five-year filming project, with the help of local "Sunday photographers," to complete this film.

A Village Marred by Haphazard Planning and Construction

A plan emerged to build a landfill facility to process the waste generated in the Black Sea region. The chosen site was an abandoned copper mine in Çamburnu, a verdant village in the Trabzon area. Despite objections regarding environmental impact and the unsuitability of a copper mine for a waste facility, the government forcefully pushed ahead with construction.



However, the construction was utterly haphazard. They attempted to prevent soil contamination with ordinary plastic sheeting, built a wastewater treatment pond so small that even an amateur could see it would overflow, and when residents complained of a "terrible stench," they sprayed large amounts of perfume over the massive garbage facility. While bewildered by the government's amateurish plans, the residents confronted the officials who occasionally came for inspections. And then, everything they had feared began to happen.—.

Based on the vast footage gathered, this is a powerful documentary that highlights the degradation of a beautiful village with its tea plantations and the struggles and suffering of its inhabitants. And this is not a "distant issue" concerning faraway lands. The dynamic where central logic and convenience take precedence, and regions bear the brunt, is identical to issues occurring in Japan, not just with waste disposal sites, but also with nuclear power plants and military bases. As the story unfolds, one realizes this is also "our story."



“TIRANZO Rhapsody: A Village's Big Garbage Dispute”
Roadshow starting Saturday, August 17th
Director | Fatih Akin
Distributor | Bitters End
2012 / Germany / 98 min
http://www.bitters.co.jp/kyousoukyoku/