Akile Nazlı Kaya
who encouraged us to use the paper cut-out technique, this short exercise became a great chance for me to go into the technique and explore more possibilities of collage in an animated form. Thus, my first short animation film, Nazli in Zlin (2006), came into being. The short film presented the bizarre experiences that I was going through as a Turkish girl who didn’t speak a word of Czech. Not knowing the Czech language was a real handicap, and because of this, I experienced many unpleasant incidents. Depicting this “lost in translation” situation in a humorous way not only worked as therapy for me to cope with my life but also helped me to find a new way of expression through the language of film. I realized that the themes I am in a direct relationship with are the ones that motivate me the most. And, therefore, the obstacles I face in life are the best inspiration for my work as an animator. After gaining experience using paper cutout animation, I eventually found my own form of storytelling. I decided to continue using the same technique to create my graduation film: Zlinska Polevka / Zlin Soup (2007). It is a portrait of the city of Zlin following the city’s extraordinary urban development, in a darkly-humorous way by making a comparison between its past and present. 78
It was shown in many festivals, including the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and won several awards, including the Best Short Film Award at the 6th Green Film Festival in Seoul in 2009. Attending this local festival in Korea was an eye-opening experience for me. I was introduced to the term green film, and this genre showed me a new path that encouraged me to devote my energy and abilities to the creation of films that focus on social, cultural and environmental themes. Through 2009 and 2012, I continued my studies at the Audiovisual Studies Department at FAMU (Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague) as a graduate student. I was motivated to study in this department because it was a meeting place for artists from diverse backgrounds such as animation, film theory, documentary filmmaking, performance art and so on, using various different audiovisual techniques and other media. I was strongly interested in themes such as immigration, food security and personal freedom. At FAMU I completed three short films, which are definitely the results of following that very path. My first film from this period, Gel-Git / Ebb & Tide (2010), was a reinterpretation of my parents’ film footage through my personal story as a long-term resident in the Czech Republic. It was one of my first attempts Panel 4
at remixing media. The viewer could have a glimpse of my parents’ life in 1970s Germany, shot on super 8, while following my own story read from my diary. An eleven-minute short, mediating between the experiences of two different generations, gradually finds many similarities that are not apparent at first. It underlines the fact that history keeps repeating itself. Another short film, with the title Kapanım/ Enclosure (2011), depicted the nightmare caused by religious fanaticism. I decided to apply this very action to myself in the filmic space, questioning the traditions and religious customs of covering one’s self. The combination of painting on glass and pixilation techniques in one continuous shot takes us into the moment of Enclosure: A prison created by ourselves. Kapanım / Enclosure was awarded Best One Minute Short in the Aerokratas Short Film Competition in 2011 and was selected to IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam) in 2012, being included in the selection of DocNext Network - Young European DIY media-makers. My graduation project Dünyayı Kurtarmaya Çalışanlar / The People Who Try to Save the World (2012) at FAMU was a short documentary combined with animation. What started this project was my concern with the food we eat and the processes it goes through before