From Far Away / Aus der Ferne (2006) dir. Thomas Arslan

“From Far Away” is a documentary dealing with a journey through Turkey. Thomas Arslan, the director, who was also responsible for the camera work, made this journey from May-June 2005. The route led through ISTANBUL and ANKARA to the south-eastern part of the country, to GANZIANTEP; then further to the East on through DIYARBAKIR and VAN to reach DOĞUBAYAZIT, near the Iranian film depicts scenes from this journey, offering a different view of contemporary Turkey: fringe impressions of everyday life in the western cities like Istanbul and Ankara, then onto the eastern regions which until recently were the front lines of internal conflict. “From Far Away” is not a journalistic report. This is the personal viewpoint of the filmmaker as he travelled through the country.