The documentary Soil and Wings follows Ayten and Erduan, who raise their family in the North-Macedonian village of Kanatlar, balancing the 800-year-old Bektashi Sufi teachings with the struggles of modern life. In this tobacco-growing valley, a Turkish Muslim community devoted to faith, family, and tradition allows gender equality to quietly flourish – rooted in the belief that all beings are equal.
After the screening, Soil and Wings-director Stefan Malešević and Muslim feminist Seyran Ateş will discuss Islamic pluralism, the position of women in Islam and the representation of Islam in western Europe.
About the speakers
Seyran Ateş is a German lawyer, a human rights activist and Muslim feminist. In 2017, Ateş founded the Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque in Berlin, a progressive mosque in which both men and women are allowed to lead the prayer and hold a sermon and all LGBTIQ Muslims are explicitly welcome. Because of her work and viewpoints, Seyran Ateş lives under constant police protection.
Stefan Malešević is a filmmaker and film curator from Serbia, He studied filmmaking at the film.factory academy in Sarajevo under the mentorship of Béla Tarr. His documentary Gora (2016) won awards at Beldocs and DokuFest and was screened at Visions du Réel. His debut feature Mamonga (2019) premiered at Karlovy Vary and screened at festivals such as New Horizons in Wroclaw and the Marrakech IFF. He is a member of the European Film Academy and works as the Head of Cinema at the cultural center De Balie in Amsterdam.
Speakers
