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Homelandsickness

One usually exchanges goods not people. The "population exchange" between Greece and Turkey 100 years ago affected more than 2 Mill. people. Until today only few know about this time. In the massacres and expulsions lie buried not only endless tragedies, but also an important part of the history of the 20th century.
The idea of a resettlement organized according to ethnic and religious principles created unimaginable misfortune and misery on both sides of the resettled and a "homesickness" that has not been cured to this day.

  • Gülsel Özkan
    Director
    Director
  • Ludger Gerhard Pfanz
    Writer
    Writers
  • Gülsel Özkan
    Writer
    Writers
  • Gülsel Özkan
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 24 minutes 29 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 27, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    168,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Greece, Turkey
  • Language:
    English, German, Modern Greek (1453-), Turkish
  • Shooting Format:
    DCP
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Gülsel Özkan

Gülsel Özkan is an international multiple award-winning filmmaker & producer.
She realized over forty documentaries, feature-films, screenplays & Video-Art-works worldwide. She also developed dramaturgic & storytelling-models for new media under the research-title: New narratives for the 21st century.

Script writer, Director and Producer sponsored by national and international Broadcaster and MFG Film Fund, Hamburg Film Fund and Media Plus.
Some examples:
• „Drowned before my eyes“, Dokumentary abaout refugees,
• „Greenpeace vs. Shell“ the Power of the consumer
Documentary abaout Ecology & Environmental Protection, 10 Yaers anniversary
• „The Amerikas„ Identitiy and resistance of the native American, 500 Years anniversary.

FILMAWARDS | PRISE
1992 “A PORTRET - Rigoberta Menchù “(Live Broadcast of Piece Nobel Prise Oslo Norwegen)

1996 “Amerikas” Documentary film
*Grand Price of the Jury 6 th International Envirement and Nature FilmFestival in Sacile Italien
*Awarded at the Amerindian film festival II Festival de Cine y Video delas Naciones Abya Yala in Ecuador/South America.
*Special reference at the XVIII Festival de La Haba¬na Cuba, as the best film about Latin America of not-Latin-American film directors.

1999 „Dornen in meinem Auge“ Documentary film
*Odyssee-Spezialpreis of the Jury for Documentary film, Interfilmfestival Nürnberg
*Festival médias nord-süd Genf
*Nominated International Human Rights Festival, Nürnberg
*Exil Filmfestival Götheborg / Schweden
* Nominated in three categories Prix Europe Berlin

2001 “Heimat Babylon” Screenplay
*Script nominated for the script award in Baden-Wuerttemberg,
*proposed for the „German Script Award 2003“.

2002 “Der Schwarzarbeiter” Short film
*1. Price for the best short film International Filmfestival Osnabrück
*1. Price for the short film at the 29. International Filmweekend Würzburg 2003
*Nominated for the best short film German Short Film Award 2003

2006 “Greenpeace vs Shell” Documentary film
“Best journalistic film” at the eco film festival Potsdam.

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Director Statement

In the early twentieth century, something hitherto unknown in history takes place between Anatolia and Greece.
A population exchange.
The expulsion and forced resettlement of some 2 million people not only buried endless tragedies, but also an important part of the history of the 20th century.
Today, one in five people in Greece and one in fifteen in Turkey are said to be descendants of these displaced people.
Only a few still know about this terrible time.
But the film not only has the potential to update the historical events, but also to become a humanistic statement in a time when flight and resettlement due to war, global warming and religious conflicts is more relevant than ever.
The goal with this film is to master the balancing act between committed, social, artistic, aesthetic and entertaining documentary coupled with the attempt to cross intercultural and interreligious borders and thus make an offer for reconciliation and understanding.