Ghostly is a poetic documentary emerging from a visual anthropology research project conducted at Freie Universität Berlin.

The film explores the emotional and spatial realities of a new generation of migrants moving from Turkey to Berlin. Through stories of displacement, language, belonging, and everyday adaptation, it traces how individuals navigate unfamiliar environments while creating new forms of connection, solidarity, and home.

Filmed between Istanbul and Berlin, Ghostly weaves together ethnographic interviews and observational imagery through an experimental narrative structure. Voices drawn from interview transcripts unfold independently from the visual track, creating a layered encounter between memory, migration, and urban space. The film reflects on the fragile terrain between rootlessness and emplacement, where cities become archives of both absence and possibility.

Screenings

EASA (2020)
Regard Bleu Ethnographic Film Festival (2020)
Ethnofest Athens (2020)
Kunstverein Tiergarten / Galerie Nord – bi’bak Film Programme, curated by Can Sungu & Malve Lippmann
International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival Istanbul (2022)
Arts Festival Freiburg at KOKI (Kommunales Kino), curated by Neriman Bayram, Didem Yazıcı & Martina Priessner

CREDITS

Written & Directed: S. Buse Yıldırım

Original music by: Suat Armağan Koçak

Camera: S. Buse Yıldırım & Büke Akşehirli

Post-Production Supervisor: Burcu Melekoğlu

Editing: Feride Akalın