Genre
Synopsis
GUARDIANS OF ANATOLIA follows a Sarıkeçili Yörük family, one of the last female-led nomadic communities in Türkiye. Across a 600-kilometer seasonal migration through the Taurus Mountains, women sustain a rhythm of movement that binds labor, land, and memory. Observed through an intimate and immersive lens, the film inhabits a philosophy of belonging without possession. As pressures toward settlement intensify, this way of life persists. Embodied, interdependent, and defiantly present.
Director Identity
Bio
Elif Koyutürk Hazen is a documentary director and cinematographer working in hybrid nonfiction. She began her career as a camera operator filming extreme sports and adventure stories around the world, a background that shaped a visual style grounded in presence, physicality, and intimacy with place.
She is the director and cinematographer of Guardians of Anatolia, a 20-minute documentary short following the last nomadic Yörük communities of Türkiye, selected for the Mountainfilm Emerging Filmmaker Fellowship. She is currently developing Story of the Lost Goddess, an episodic documentary series examining goddess traditions across Anatolia, the Mediterranean, and the Near East, and is in post-production on Shaereh, a 6-minute art film centered on Iranian women’s expressions of freedom through Sama-inspired movement.
In parallel with her film work, she was selected as an artist for Cambridge University’s Sci-Art program and has exhibited work internationally in museum and gallery contexts as both a visual artist and photographer. Her practice is research-driven, visually grounded, and internationally focused.
Screening History
Premiere Available
Mountainfilm WIP Screening
Awards History
Mountainfilm 2026 - Emerging Filmmaker of the Year
