Waiting for the Clouds

Waiting for the Clouds (Bulutları Beklerken) is a film from 2003, Turkey. The film was directed by Yeşim Ustaoğlu. It is based on a novel by Georgios Andreadis titled Tamama. The film was produced by Setarh Farsi, Helge Albers and Behrooz Hashemian. The film was nominated in Montréal World Film Festival 2004. Plot The neighbor´s son Mehmet is worried about the elderly woman Ayshe, and he likes hearing her stories. When Ayshe´s older sister dies she refuses to be with the other villager and starts searching for her younger brother in Greece. Waiting for the Clouds takes place in 1975 and Mehmet´s experience is based on the directors memory from the 70s. And the character Ayshe would not have had to keep her ethnic identity a secret for 50 years if she had lived in a tolerant environment. Hiding ethnic identity The character of Ayshe was born Eleni, daughter of indigenous Greeks in the eastern Black Sea region of Northern Turkey, what was once the ancient country of Pontus. She was adopted by a Turkish Muslim family in the World War I. Fear is the reason that Ayshe never spoke of her ethnic past again. In the 70s Turkey the government did put a lot of pressure on the ordinary lives. If there had been tolerance, Ayshe would not have had to keep her ethnic identity a secret for 50 years. But in 1970s Turkey, paranoia and a fear of “others” was on the rise while tolerance toward minority ethnic groups diminished. Boundaries and Ties