A FADING LANGUAGE, A FADING CUISINE
Kaybolan Bir Dil, Kaybolan Bir Mutfak
Winner of Best Documentary Audience Award in
Boston Turkish Festival's
13th Annual Documentary & Short Film Competition
Directed by Deniz Alphan
Doc. / 2017 / 57' 22" / with English subtitles
The documentary chronicles the progressive loss of the centuries-old language and food culture of the Jewish community that immigrated to the Ottoman Empire from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. The film opens with a display of photographs illustrating both the pleasant and the troublesome times of Sephardic families in Turkey. Academics, writers, and native speakers talk about the extinction of the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) language and the simultaneous loss of Sephardic culinary practices.
Selected Festivals and Awards
- Boston Turkish Festival Documentary and Short Film Competition, USA: Best Documentary Award
- Istanbul Film Festival, Turkey: Special Screening
- 20th Rendezvous Istanbul Film Festival, Turkey
Director DENİZ ALPHAN
Deniz Alphan (Istanbul, 1947) is a journalist. She worked as the editor-in-chief of the weekend supplements of two daily newspapers, Sabah and Milliyet. She retained the same position in the Vizyon magazine for about twenty years. She has also worked as a copywriter and as a commercial director. She is the writer of two books, Dina’s Kitchen and There is a Man in the Kitchen. Her documentary, A Fading Language, a Fading Cuisine is her first experience in filmmaking. |
