Although all the countries in the Muslim world have abolished slavery, including Saudi Arabia in 1966, the social suffering and the discrimination suffered by the slaves' descendants continue to have an effect today nevertheless. This film tells the history of the dark-skinned Mustafa Olpak, whose African grandfather was bought as a domestic slave by an Ottoman Turkish family and thus came to Istanbul as a result of the Kemalist revolution. While his grandfather may have then been legally a free man, he was still was unable to feed all his children, and so he gave up one of his daughters for adoption to an unknown family. Movingly Mustafa tells how his father rediscovered the sister who had once disappeared into adoption. In 2006, Mustafa Olpak organized the first meeting of Afro-Turks with similar histories.



Gül Büyükbese Muyan, Turkey, 2007, 47m. In Turkish.


2008 | 15th New York African Film Festival | NEW YORK, Usa | APRIL 9th to MAY 26th | www.africanfilmny.org |
> Selection

Winner of the UNESCO Jury award Breaking The Chains' Prize.