The movie “Tearing Walls Down”, directed by Hebun Polat and Şerif Çiçek and produced by Adil Demirci, Onur Güler and Yeşim Coşkun, talks about four female politicians, Figen Yüksekdağ, Gültan Kışanak, Aysel Tuğluk and Sibel Yiğitalp. The film is currently screening in different European cities.

This is an interview with director Hebun Polat and producer Onur Güler.

When we look at the title of the movie, Figen Yuksekdag’s book ‘Tearing Walls Down’ comes to mind. What is the relationship between the book and the movie?

When we started shooting the documentary, we didn’t have a title in mind. However, in the following period, the books of both Figen Yüksekdağ and Gültan Kışanak were published. We read both books in detail and got the information needed for the documentary. Then, while we were discussing the title with our team, the name of Figen Yüksekdağ’s book had an aspect that corresponded to the political process and also had a symbolic meaning. Figen Yüksekdağ also came from a relatively conservative family of Turkish origin, but as a revolutionary socialist woman, her struggle with the Kurdish people side by side and her election as the mayor of the city where Gültan Kışanak was tortured 40 years ago, pointed to the walls that are being demolished today. As a result, we can say that the title of the book and the story found each other.