Film: Metamorphosis - Women's Struggle For Freedom In Turkey (free event)

Through the stories of four courageous women—a writer imprisoned for her articles, a dormitory manager harassed in custody, a judge arrested with her husband, and a mother of four subjected to strip searches—the film Metamorphosis brings to life the struggle for justice and human rights in Turkey.
The International Relations Council is delighted to be partnering with the Dialogue Institute to host a screening of this film, followed by a virtual Q&A session with the director, Ashlihan Kas. The Q&A will take place via Zoom, but the film will be screened at the IRC office space at Park39. Registration is limited to 24 guests, and we are asking all participants to sign up in advance to ensure each attendee has a space in the room.

About The Film: Metamorphosis is a documentary by Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) that centers women’s lived experiences under political repression in Türkiye after 2016. It moves beyond headlines and statistics to document what oppression looks like in daily life—and what resilience looks like when freedom, dignity, and safety are placed under pressure. At the heart of the film are four women whose lives were altered by detention, intimidation, and forced displacement. Through testimony-driven storytelling, the documentary traces how they rebuild identity and agency while navigating trauma, family separation, and social exclusion. Metamorphosis is designed as an advocacy documentary: it helps international audiences understand how authoritarian pressure reshapes ordinary life—especially for women—while also showing the capacity for transformation under extreme constraint. The film’s central theme is not only suffering; it is the insistence on dignity. For educators, policymakers, journalists, and human-rights advocates, the film can serve as a starting point for structured discussion on women’s rights, freedom of expression, detention practices, and the long-term social impact of political purges.

Registration link: https://www.irckc.org/what-we-do/irc-events-calendar/#id=10844&cid=1742&wid=2201&type=Cal

About The Director: Aslıhan Kas was born in 1981, in Erzurum, Turkey. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Istanbul University. For 17 years, she worked as a teacher and held various leadership roles in educational institutions across Turkey. In 2018, she relocated to New Jersey, USA. Since then, Aslıhan has been actively involved with Advocates of Silenced Turkey, where she serves as a board member and coordinates the Exhibition of Silent Screams project. She is also the director of two human rights documentaries, The Other Children and Metamorphosis. Aslıhan is the co-author of the book Being the Other in Turkey, available on Amazon. She is married and the mother of two children.

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