The current Tarabya resident Rûken Tekeş presents her work on 28.01. in the Erimtan Arkeoloji ve Sanat Müzesi Ankara.
Moderation: Zekican Sarısoy

Rûken Tekes born in Diyarbakir / Turkey; lived in Istanbul, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Athens, Vienna, Venice, Kiev, San Diego and Moscow for education and work. Tekeş is an international human rights expert, worked a number of years for United Nations and as lecturer at Koç University. She is a self-made filmmaker; started scriptwriting, directing and producing on social, political and environmental issues in 2015. Her multi-award-winning first fiction short HEVÊRK / THE CIRCLE has participated to over two hundred festivals worldwide. Her feature documentary debut AETHER premiered in International Competition of Visions du Réel 2019, received the Golden Orange Jury Prize at Antalya FF, and continues screening and receiving awards. Her feature fiction debut, PHILAX has been selected by Cannes Film Festival’s L’Atelier and San Francisco Film Institute as Rainin Grant Finalist, received project development grants from the Göteborg Film Festival – Film Fund and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey. Tekes is a member of the European Film Academy (EFA).

Rûken Tekeş are with Ute Freund residents at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2022 to January 2023 as a tandem of the German-Turkish co-production grants supported by the Allianz Kulturstiftung.

HEVÊRK / THE CIRCLE
Short fiction 2016 / TR – 14min
Producer: Rûken Tekeş / Sarya Films Collective

In Mesopotamia, there are children of different ethnicities, religions and languages. An ordinary school day turns into a life-changing event for Zelal (an Ezidi girl) and her introvert admirer Zeki.

AETHER
Documentary 2019 / TR & IT – 82min
Producers: Billur Arikan & Gabriele Oricchio & Rûken Tekeş
Production Company: Sarya Films Collective

A filmmaker’s 21-day homage to capture the ethereal essence of her unique ancient homeland soon to be submerged by a hydroelectric dam, AETHER is instinctively carried and driven by emotions, feelings and observations. It reveals the place’s truths following its own unencumbered chronology. An invitation to a free-minded voyage into nature’s cycle of birth-death-rebirth in the oldest continuously inhabited place on Earth, Hasankeyf.