Onun Haricinde, İyiyim

Asli is new in Berlin and works as a voiceover artist. After she records the Turkish version of the Pergamon Museum’s audio guide, the camera gazes at the famous altar, lingers on the fragment of a raised arm, on a bearded face without a nose, on a curly head of hair, on a ruffled dress of stone. The aspect ratio is smaller; the rest of the screen is black. “The friezes,” Asli says in voiceover, “represent the battle of the gods against the Titans.”

In his short film ONUN HARICINDE, IYIYIM, Eren Aksu evokes a recent transnational movement and an older one: that of immigrants from Turkey coming to Berlin in the late 2010s and that of the friezes that were excavated in Pergamon and brought to Germany in the 19th century. Loss is unavoidable: the fact that Asli speaks Turkish more fluently than a colleague who has been in Berlin since she was born puts the newcomer at an advantage and the local at a disadvantage. The Hercules fragments are missing from the friezes, and in the temple complex, which the film wanders through in generous, luminous wide shots in its final moments, the pieces later added to replace them stand out in gleaming bright white. (Cristina Nord)

Production Eren Aksu. Production companies Eren Aksu (Berlin, Germany), Universität der Künste Berlin (Berlin, Germany). Director Eren Aksu. Cinematography Katharina Hauke. Editing Eren Aksu. Music Mehmet Güren. Sound design Jochen Jezussek. Sound Mehmet Can Koçak. Costumes Hanna Döring, Marie Rasper. Assistant director Cavo Kernich. With Seda Güngör, Ruth Hornemann, Dilan GeZaza, Gizem Özbek, Oğuzhan Okumuş, Sıla Sönmez, Fatma Aksu, Cavo Kernich.

Eren Aksu, born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1987, he studied film and then earned an MFA in arts and media. Eren Aksu works as a filmmaker in Berlin. His short films have been invited to many festivals.

Films: 2015: Cosmorama (8 min.). 2018: Routines (18 min.). 2020: Onun Haricinde, İyiyim / Other than That, I'm Fine.

Bonus Material