The Return

Premiered at Dok Leipzig in 2016, THE RETURN is an independent film produced in Turkey by Armenian director Hale Güzin Kızılaslan, reflecting on present-day Eastern Anatolia, or the Armenian Highlands—a region where Christian Armenians had historically lived alongside Muslim Kurds. Through scenes from the everyday life of present-day occupants, Kızılaslan unravels the generational memory of the Armenian Genocide, remembered as the Medz Yeghern (“Great Catastrophe”).

Through expropriation, displacement and extermination, the Armenian population in this region of the Ottoman Empire dropped from around two million to less than 500,000. Despite the ethnic cleansing committed against Armenians during the First World War, Turkey has refuted claims of genocide. The memory of Armenian settlements in present-day Eastern Anatolia has likewise been erased by the Turkish government, without even memorials or plaques to mark the memory of these atrocities.

Kızılaslan’s eye lingers over scenes of villages like Kahta, where old stone homes and bridges seamlessly meld into the mountainous region surrounding Mount Nemrut. Here, survivors persist, building their lives amid these landscapes of silence.

THE RETURN is especially relevant in a moment of unfolding conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, where Turkey has been implicated through its military alliance with Azerbaijan. As history comes full circle, land is shown to be the true backbone to community.