The Town That Drove Away

Hasankeyf, a town with millennia of history, disappears under water by Erdoğan’s orders, swallowed up by a massive and prestigious dam project. Promises of modern life strip the people of their identity and old homes, replacing them with new buildings cast in concrete.

Rengin, a Kurdish shepherd, and Burak, the local barber, find themselves trapped in a political game where survival depends on obeying strange new rules: unmarried residents lose the right to a house, and farmers are forced to give up their animals. Each new restriction reminds them that their lives will never be their own—they are merely pieces in a system that demands obedience and submission.

Everything they once knew has been torn away forever, leaving behind only family pride and a fragile sense of dignity.