Selen Çatalyürekli
WOMEN OF ABKELEN FOREST
In a village on the edge of an expanding coal mine in southwest Türkiye, five rural women – olive farmers and housewives – transform from neighbours into forest defenders, public spokespersons, legal defendants, hunger strikers, and village chiefs, as their collective struggle reshapes both their lives and the landscape around them.
SYNOPSIS
Women of Akbelen Forest is set in İkizköy, a village in Muğla, southwest Türkiye, adjacent to an expanding open-pit coal mine. At the centre of the film are five women whose lives are transformed through four years of resistance to save the Akbelen Forest, the last natural barrier between the mine and their community. Filming began in December 2021, when director Selen Çatalyürekli arrived on a short NGO commission and kept filming for four-and-a-half years. The film traces the women's personal and collective transformation: from limited public presence to leading press statements, non-violent direct actions, hunger strikes, and local elections. The film is structured in four episodes, anchored by two women's picnic gatherings – the first filmed inside the forest in March 2023, before the large-scale cutting begins; the second in the olive groves in November 2024, after the forest has been cleared. What shifts between these two gatherings – in landscape, tone, and the women themselves – is the film's emotional core. Weaving together observational footage, villagers' mobile-phone recordings, archival material, and map-based strategy-game sequences, the film situates this local ecological struggle within a global ecofeminist framework: Why do women so often stand at the forefront of environmental defence – and what does their resistance reveal about the possibility of living otherwise?
DIRECTOR
Selen Çatalyürekli
PRODUCER
Zeyneb Gültekin
EDITOR
Selen Çatalyürekli, Tatlıhan Tuncel
COUNTRY
Türkiye
LENGTH
80–90 min (estimated)
Selen Çatalyürekli
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Selen Çatalyürekli (1987, Istanbul) is a documentarist, visual artist, and social designer whose work explores ecology, memory, gender, migration, and urban design. She holds a BA in social and political sciences from Sabancı University and an MA in industrial product design from Istanbul Technical University. Over fifteen years, her practice has spanned documentary filmmaking, web-based narratives, and visual installations, presented at Müze Gazhane, Postane, BIFED, Documentarist, Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Sakıp Sabancı Museum, and Salt Galata, among others. Women of Akbelen Forest is her debut feature-length documentary.
I have spent more than fifteen years moving between the roles of documentarian, activist, and woman. Before arriving in Akbelen in 2021, I had been questioning why I was repeatedly drawn to documenting struggles shaped by questions of life and survival. I first came to Akbelen to produce short campaign videos and intended to remain an observer. But the longer I stayed, the more difficult that distance became to maintain. Inside the forest encampment, I watched women become organisers, spokespersons, and leaders as their relationships with one another and their sense of themselves transformed. As the violence escalated during the 2023 tree-cutting, my own position also shifted – from observer to participant. Coming from urban activism, I knew the gender dynamics of ecological movements but very little about rural life, where land, livelihood, and resistance are inseparable. Through Akbelen, I began asking why women so often stand at the forefront of ecological struggles. I want audiences to experience these transformations. The film combines long observational scenes with animated sequences that reveal the historical and political forces invisible to the camera. More than telling the story of a forest, it explores how resistance transforms both the people living through it and the filmmaker witnessing it. I hope it leaves audiences with the feeling that meaningful change often begins by transforming people long before it transforms the world.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Zeyneb Gültekin
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY
Zeyneb Gültekin is a civil society professional with over fifteen years of experience in human rights, humanitarian assistance, and advocacy, working across international and country contexts with organisations including the International Press Institute (IPI), Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Türkiye. Women of Akbelen Forest is her first documentary production.
PRODUCER’S STATEMENT
Women of Akbelen Forest brings together many of the themes that have shaped my professional life – human rights, community resilience, and collective action in the face of powerful interests – and it was this connection that led me to join the project as a producer. Having spent my career working on human rights, humanitarian assistance, and civil society, the struggle in Akbelen immediately resonated: a community defending its rights, its environment, and its future against exactly the kind of powerful interests I have spent years working to hold accountable. What convinced me to join the project was not only the urgency of the story, but also the depth of director Selen Çatalyürekli's relationship with the community. Over four years, she gained a rare level of trust and proximity, documenting not only a resistance movement but also the personal transformations taking place within it. The result is an intimate and nuanced portrait of women whose lives became inseparable from a broader fight for environmental justice. As a first-time producer, I see my role as creating the conditions that allow this story to reach its full potential while remaining faithful to the people at its centre. I am leading the film's fundraising, partnerships, and audience development strategy, drawing on my experience building collaborations across local and international stakeholders. At a time when environmental defenders face increasing pressure around the world, I believe this film offers a powerful testimony to the resilience, agency, and leadership of local communities. My hope is that it will connect audiences far beyond Türkiye and contribute to wider conversations about climate justice, democracy, and collective action.
Where are we at?
PRODUCTION BUDGET
247.150 €
NEEDED FOR COMPLETION
196.150 €
TERRITORIES AVAILABLE
All territories available
EXPECTED RELEASE International festival premiere anticipated early 2027
Looking at CineLink?
Sales agents: No sales agent formally attached. Ana Saiz (Impronta Films, London) is attached as Sales Mentor, a mentorship awarded through ZagrebDox Pro Slow Pitch 2026. Sales agent to be pursued following picture lock.
Distributors: None attached. To be pursued through Sarajevo Film Festival CineLink Industry Days, DocLisboa Nebulae programme, and Svaneti International Film Festival Work in Progress Competition.
Broadcasters: None attached. Active pursuit planned through festival industry programmes from August 2026.
Commissioning editors: None attached.
International co-producer: The project is in association with Smoke & Mirrors Foundation (NL). We are actively seeking an international minority co-producer and welcome conversations at CineLink. A formal co-production arrangement is contingent on securing public funding, as most co-production treaty frameworks require evidence that at least 50% of the budget is secured from public sources in one of the co-producing countries.