Rotterdam International Film Festival

Seen Unseen: An Anthology of (Auto)Censorship was part of International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025.

Desktop images, letters, text messages, interviews and CCTV footage, this aesthetically eclectic, politically daring collection of films by Altyazı Fasikül: Free Cinema stresses the need for criticality in times of censorship and repression.

Reflections on the Gezi Park protests of 2013, celebrations of the culturally distinct cruising spots of Istanbul, critiques on the penitentiary system and the exhuming of traces of the Armenian genocide – a myriad of stories on the current political landscape of Turkey could and should be told by critically engaged filmmakers. But, at a time when censorship in Turkey is becoming more and more severe, artists and filmmakers increasingly find their voices being silenced. As the lawsuits against oppositional filmmakers have been piling up, practices of auto-censorship are on the rise under the threat of incarceration.

Coming together under the roof of platform Altyazı Fasikül: Free Cinema, a group of eight filmmakers contributed six videos to this anthology film that goes against the grain; by any means necessary. Using a wide array of cinematic techniques, this collection of politically daring films asks the vital question: to show or not to show? The result is a testament to the independent and forward-thinking spirit of filmmakers who dare to keep their cinema politically engaged.

– Hugo Emmerzael