Ecem Sınay

Blinding Goats is a short film showing my family having traditional Turkish food in an observational documentary format. The film was displayed with kebabs so the viewers could sit on the table and enjoy the food with the rest of my family. It entails organic conversations between the family members with some commentary explaining their personal lives and achievements. The separation of the film in three screens is inspired by religious triptych paintings as a reminder of Islamic background.

The conversations are edited together to illuminate lack of financial opportunities, violence, the estrangement between different generations, tradition, family and death. It is a mundane moment in time as a reflection of life in an occupied land that longs to be recognised so that the collective trauma of war and separation can be forgotten. As an artist and young individual who has emigrated to the UK for better opportunities, my own distancing from my family is represented with guilt and confusion by close-ups of food and surroundings. Therefore, only explanatory commentary is used instead of a rather poetic or figurative language because the film is intended to reflect my inner feelings of suppressed love for my background and culture to become more European and successful in the real world.