The Echoes

The film tells the story of women’s journey from psychological/physical captivity to imaginary freedom through a theatrical performance in Trabzon, which is a city in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. This experimental documentary, where fiction and reality, theatre and cinema are intertwined, expresses the experiences and transformations that three recently released female prisoners went through in a theatre workshop carried out in prison via their interviews and sound recordings. Meanwhile, involving a group of professional theatre actors add a performative dimension to the film. The director who is also the facilitator of the workshops questions the meaning of liberation through theatre, while making her own experience with the female prisoners a part of their stories. Passing through the abandoned monasteries, plateaus, crowded streets and tunnels of the city and the sea, this story goes beyond the boundaries of the prison. With an intuition coming from the collective unconscious, sounds and spaces take on a character extending to the common history of women. In this multi-layered narrative where history, journey and body come together through performance, women’s passion for freedom despite all kinds of “captivity” turns into a provocative voice with the power of theatre.