When life stands still in the war, the fates of scattered Kurdish children are altered forever.

Şırnak is a Kurdish city on the border of Turkey, Iraq and Syria. In 2007, drama teacher Tayfur began recording candid interviews with children aged between 8 and 14. They were once enthusiastic, honest and full of hope for a brighter future. Today, such interviews are not even possible anymore. The school has been destroyed. Women’s rights are fragile. People’s mental health is deteriorating and self-confidence is lost. Bigger ambitions have faded. In 2016, war erupted on the streets of Şırnak.

In 2025, Kurdish director Tayfur returns to the city, which is almost impossible to enter without special permission. Jehat, who once hired him to teach theatre classes, no longer recognizes him. Tayfur embarks on a remarkable humanitarian journey to find the children he interviewed in 2007, and to discover what has become of those who once dreamed of becoming poets, writers, dancers, actors, doctors or basketball players.

A minimalist edit of footage from three different time periods evokes a deep sense of the passage of time, a silenced history and a suppressed memory following the 2016 curfew. The risk of imprisonment forced some people to flee abroad. Tayfur's path led him far from Şırnak, to Switzerland and Germany.

Edvinas Pukšta