Pınar Öğrenci’s first documentary film examines the effects of discriminatory urban policies implemented in the 1980s in Berlin on “guest workers.” The starting point of the film is IBA (International Bau Austellung), the post-war urban renewal project carried out in the district of Kreuzberg between 1984 and 87. The photographs taken by the architect Heide Moldenhauer, who worked for IBA, and various archival materials form the basis of the film. Nearly forty years after they were taken, Öğrenci finds the people in the photographs to hold interviews with them and displays the hidden history of Kreuzberg through the experiences and solidarity stories of women immigrants.

Gurbet Artık Bir Ev

Loosely inspired by Stefan Zweig’s novella, in which playing chess is depicted as a means of surviving fascism, The Avalanche recounts the events of the Armenian genocide, still contested by the Turkish state. Pinar Öğrenci uses archives and present-day footage of the region to uncover the traumas left by the Armenian people on their landscape and their memories.