Sponsored Project

I've Got The Power

Rüzgâr Buşki
Rüzgâr Buşki, Ekin Çalışır, Ayşe Tunca, Martichka Bozhilova

Shot over four years, I’ve Got the Power portrays four Superheroes who join forces to confront death and seek healing after the tragic deaths of their loved ones. Through music and glamorous performances they transform pain into power by queering grief.

As the Covid-19 pandemic hits, we are faced with the loss of loved ones and the loss of the world that we perceive as ‘ordinary’. In this film Turkey’s queer community shares its experience of how they face loss and how they grieve. With this film we share our healing perspective to the collective grief of the world.

How does one heal after losing their dearest?
How can one say goodbye without a funeral?
How can families grieve for their deceased when themselves are under attack?
What if there is no justice, not even a mere prosecution?
What does it mean to die as an ‘other’?
How can a fringe community create their own tradition of mourning?

As Hande, Salih, Buse and Nihal face their fears, confront death and grieve, their long-time friends and comrades, the director and her crew accompany them in their journey. Coming together in a storytelling workshop that was exclusively developed for this documentary and tailored for the protagonists, they reveal their unique ordeal of losing family and friends in tragic deaths. Each starts a journey from being reserved and hesitant to open and attentive. As they reflect and share, they laugh and cry; they hug, hold and lift each other up. They sit together in silence. They feel awkward, funny and weak. They find power in being weak. They create power.

As a direct confrontation with death, at the end of their unique experience in the workshop, the protagonists develop their own funeral ceremonies in detail, as a tribute to their untold farewells.
When the funerals start, the protagonists are reborn as superheroes in their musical fantasy. Each protagonist chooses a tribute song, inspired by a rendition of a song at their late comrade’s burial. Together each of the four create glamorous performances of music and/or spoken word. Through costumes, dancers and the mood, a glamorous gay atmosphere redefines our relation with funerals in a utopian vision. These dream funerals are not about saying farewells but celebrating the lives of our queer protagonists.

I’ve Got the Power is an invitation ​to pause, to give ourselves time, face death and grieve. This is an invitation to take a break in order to continue with our daily and political struggle in good health.

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