A documentary focusing on children affected by human rights violations in Turkey during a state of emergency declared following a failed coup in 2016 has been awarded Best Human Rights Film at the Cannes World Film Festival, the Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) announced on X on Tuesday.
🎥 The documentary "The Other #Children," produced by AST & Humankind Production, has been honored with the Best Human Rights Film award at @worldfilmcannes! This powerful film shares the poignant stories of 13 children impacted by Decree Laws in #Turkey. Heartfelt appreciation… https://t.co/4Vbiug3Iur pic.twitter.com/U79eqHaQMV
— Advocates of Silenced Turkey (@silencedturkey) July 30, 2024
Produced by AST and Humankind Productions, “The Other Children” is described by the human rights group as “[sharing] the poignant stories of 13 children impacted by decree laws in Turkey.”
Turkey witnessed serious human rights violations when tens of thousands of people were removed from their jobs, detained or jailed through numerous controversial decree-laws issued during a state of emergency declared in the aftermath of a failed coup on July 15, 2016. The purge hit followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, the hardest as the movement was accused by the Turkish government of masterminding the failed coup.
Thousands of people from the Gülen movement have fled Turkey since the coup attempt to avoid a massive witch-hunt carried out by the Turkish government against alleged members of the faith-based group. Many have tried to illegally flee Turkey as the government had canceled the passports of thousands of people.
The controversial decrees issued by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) government continue to affect the lives of many.
Politurco.com said in a report on Tuesday that the documentary’s production team began interviewing the children of families affected by the state-of-emergency decrees three years ago, aiming to raise global awareness about the hardships they faced.
The documentary focuses on the heartbreaking stories of 13 children, including three who lost their lives and 10 who talked about their experiences of marginalization, separation from their parents and prison visits.
The documentary tells about the tragic deaths of 3-year-old Betül Civelek, who died in a car accident after visiting her imprisoned father in 2018; Ahmet Burhan Ataç, an 8-year-old cancer patient who succumbed to his illness in 2020 after an ordeal that included separation from his imprisoned father and a travel ban on his mother, which delayed his receiving treatment abroad; and 12-year-old Furkan Dizdar, who was diagnosed with cancer after the arrest of his father and died in 2017 after being denied treatment abroad due to a travel ban on his parents.
The documentary also includes stories of children who risked their lives crossing the Evros River because their families had to flee the country to avoid the crackdown due to revocation of their passports during the state of emergency.
The AST has screened “The Other Children” in San Francisco, Santa Clara (CA), Toronto, Sydney, Ottawa, Cherry Hill (NJ), Pittsburgh, Long Island, Utah and Philadelphia. The application process for other film festivals is ongoing, according to Politurco.com.
Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the movement since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following the abortive putsch that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.