What we do

In preparation.

This documentary follows the shooting of the first Uyghur film to be produced outside of the Uyghur homeland. Shot with a multicultural and multilingual team, the cast and crew examine issues around creative agency, diasporic dynamics, and what it means to be Uyghur.

Uyghur communities in Kazakhstan occupy an uneasy space, one eye towards the growing ethnic nationalism of their host country, one eye towards China’s ongoing policies of securitisation, incarceration and cultural erasure in their homeland. This film documents the attempts made by Uyghurs in Kazakhstan to revive traditional meshrep gatherings as a way to sustain Uyghur language and culture, and to strengthen their communities. Meshrep are hot, convivial events involving eating, joking, music and dancing, which forge lasting bonds among groups of men called the Thirty Boys. The film shows the potential for grassroots mobilisation of heritage to provide a forum for negotiating tensions around identity and religion, and a space for collective action.

Part of the Uyghur Meshrep Project (SOAS - Turan Universities).

Produced by l’Endroit and les Films du Bal.

Short synopsis: 2017, Uyghur Region. 27-year-old Dilber, a young unmarried woman, has to endure the pressure of her family who want her to get married. Her friend Gulnur, who lives in Paris and whom she calls to share her daily life, will suggest her a solution.

Programmed at BSFF on 1 May 2023
Programmed to be broadcasted by ARTE May 20th.
The filmmaking process was documented and observed by our team members.

Everybody Is Gone is an in-person, interactive experience of immersive journalism. Drawing from the traditions of live theater, museum galleries, and research and reporting, Everybody Is Gone offers audiences insight into the day-to-day repression experienced by Uyghurs and others in the Uyghur Homeland.

Its World premiere in Berlin Alte Münze was documented and observed by the team members.

Featured Press about the project :

• Radio Free Asia
  ئۇيغۇر قىرغىنچىلىقىنىڭ كۆرگەزمىلىك تەسۋىرى: «ھەممەيلەن كېتىپ قالدى!»
• China Law and Policy
  Performance Review: Everybody is Gone – Capturing some of the horrors of Xinjiang
• jungle.world
  »Ein System der allgegenwärtigen Überwachung«
• rbbKultur
  ALTE MÜNZE: “EVERYBODY IS GONE”
• Der Tagesspiegel
  Eine eindringliche Performance in Berlin macht Chinas Staatsterror begreifbar
• Taz
  „Die Kultur wird zerstört“
• ESEuro
  Opresión de los uigures – “Todo el mundo se ha ido”: una actuación inquietante en Berlín hace comprensible el terrorismo de Estado en China – cultura