Pastoral Valley - Asmin Film Production

About Film

Ahmet Kizen is one of the first to turn to rural living and maybe the one who knows this field the best. He is the one knowing the problems of ecological premises and the obstructions. He has some works what kind of problems those trials lead to and how to solve them. 900 saplings he planted have grown up and produced fruits.

Ahmet Kizen is among the first ones who started ecological tourism in Turkey. Guests are hosted in Pastoral Valley in all 12 months. They eat organic and ecologically grown food from the garden. If they want, they can stay there in return for work in the garden or help the farming. Or, they can just have a holiday in nature. Meanwhile, in rural life, they can meet the nature and they can develop their handcraft in local culture workshops. ‘Natural life style design, tomato paste – tarhana (sundried food made of tomato, yoghurt and flour) – noodle – jam – pickle making, pottery, wood carving, and wattling are the courses offered in the ranch.

In this episode, we are describing the ‘side effects’ of ecological life from Ahmet Kizen’s experiences.

Watch the Movie

Movie Quotes

Ahmet: Not earning money; just living by. This is very important in rural life as when you start eraning money, there is no end to that. You cannot stop since the land and land income is much higher than agricultural income. The places in Aegean and Mediterranean, where the rural fabric has been destroyed are some examples to that.

Ahmet: I’m from Istanbul. I was born and raised there. I am a graduate of Istanbul Technical University. I left Istanbul when I was in Levent, which had been a very nice place in the past. After years, what we see is higher buildings and giant skyscrapers. Now, here we host people from there. I call them city sick. They are so sick of the city that they have to come here and breathe once in a while.

Ahmet: This is ecological life farm. This is the place for farm production. The main here is to produce something. There are beneficiaries. I call them shareholders.

Purpose, Approach

With their structuring, crowd and chaos making our lives a torture most of the time, are big cities our only alternatives? Can there be a conscious and preferred country life in our country too? Is it possible to live without being apart from the nature or being carried away by the consumption frenzy? Can there be an urban farmer? Are all these running away from the city, these pursuits a kind of trend? We think aloud with the people whose lives we witness. We are reconsidering the cities we live in. We ask if it is possible to build a new living space with our own color and shape apart from the models that are presented to us.

In a world where everything is constructed upon the urban life are these life trials utopic?

In our narration which we used the witness method basically, we will have questions that we seek answers. Is it possible for people who have spent so much time in big cities to get rid of this urbanism that stick on them?

The work done is very important but how and what is the source of the responses of practical life?

How do people who have little or no contact with the nature have a start in the country? Is this a reunion or just a struggle with the nature? Is the word ‘it’s not the nature that needs us but we need the nature’ valid in every situation?

Is it possible for the ones who fought or struggled with the nature all the time and had a public memory to have another relationship in an instant?

Our film focuses on the ones who leave the city in order to ‘have a collective life in the country’. Although we take a stand with the ‘another life is possible’ idea, our attitude to these stories do not show it. In these life style trials, we not only witness the things created but also show the things that do not work or contradict.

Crew

Yapım – Production

TRT Belgesel Kanalı – TRT Tourism and Documentary Channel

Yönetmen, Metin Yazarı – Written and Directed by Bingöl Elmas

Görüntü Yönetmeni – Director of Photography Koray Kesik

Kameraman – Cameraman Mehmet Eren Bozbaş

Kurgu – Editing Uğur Hamidoğulları, Ali İlhan

Ses – Sound Özkan Arınkal

Müzik – Music Taner Sarf Yapım

Yönetim Asistanı – Assistants to the Director Sultan İlhan, Özgür Küçüktülü

Görsel Tasarım ve Jenerik -Color Correction and Generic Desing Ali İlhan

Ses ve Görüntü Deşifresi Aliye Düşünmez, Sultan İlhan