Date:
Location:
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies presents a film screening
Muhadžiri/Muhacirler/The Migrants
a documentary film by
Bakir Tanović
Historian, film director producer
Register in advance: https://bit.ly/3vb4dE7.
From the late 19th century through much of the 20th, the protracted disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and its contested aftermath saw millions of Muslims emigrate from the Balkans to what is today the Republic of Turkey.
Filmed in the late 1980s for a Bosnian audience, Bakir Tanović's documentary Muhadžiri (Muhacirler/The Migrants) interviews a number of these Balkan migrants and their descendants in northwestern Turkey, allowing them to speak on their family histories, preservation of old customs, and continuing ties to their ancestral homes. In the process, it provides a multifaceted historical document, not only preserving the memory of a generation of Bosnian-Turkish migrants who have since largely passed, but also offering a unique perspective on an important segment of contemporary Turkish society.
With English subtitles, the film is now accessible for the first time to a wider audience with interests in Balkan, Ottoman, and modern Turkish history.
Born in Sarajevo in 1930, Bakir Tanović would spend over five decades in the Bosnian film industry, directing a number of award-winning documentary and feature films as well as co-founding the production company Bosna Film in 1983. His work frequently tackled subjects related to the history of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which he also pursued in several historical studies published from the 1990s until his death in 2012.
The screening will be followed by a brief discussion and Q&A with: Harun Buljina, Visiting Researcher at CMES and subtitle author; Leyla Amzi-Erdoğdular, Assistant Professor of History at Rutgers University; and Jusuf Tanović, Bakir's son and member of the film crew for Muhadžiri.
Contact: Liz Flanagan