The Bus to Amerika is a fictional story inspired by my experience of giving filmmaking workshops to children in refugee camps for Yazidis – an ancient ethno-religious group from Mesopotamia. During my work I learned that eating lettuce was a sin for Yazidis. I was deeply moved by one boy’s effort of trying to assure me that it was OK for me to eat it; it was about his belief, not mine…

Right next to Turkey’s borders, there is an endless war for power going on, hidden under the pretext of religion. While Turkey also becomes party to that fight, along with the violence inside the country, my constant feeling for a while has been that ‘I cannot breath’. At such a time, this little boy’s attitude felt like a breath of fresh air.

That boy’s gesture of respect constitutes the core issue of The Bus To Amerika. The story will be told from the perspective of the imaginative 10 year-old Yazidi boy Sefran, who one day accidentally eats the forbidden vegetable of his religion. The choice of following the perspective of a 10 year-old is not to soften harsh realities. It is because children are fascinating with their pure minds, untainted with taboos and rules of societ, and their ability to seize the moment.

Through this story I want to explore how society, taboos and exclusion work, by putting the microcosmos of the children in the camp in the centre of the film and following how rumors and manipulations affect the course of life, both in the children’s world and the surrounding outside world. And opposed to that, how understanding and respecting each other, therefore, living together in peace and harmony, can work.

We live in a time where we are bombarded with instant news and images of tragedy every day. As a consequence, people do not react to human tragedy anymore. Therefore, I believe we need to change the narrative and create optimistic counterpoints, where the positive and personal side is in the fore, without ignoring the negative.

Told from a child’s perspective, the film will be an uplifting drama with a predominantly whimsical visual style, especially when depicting the kids’ world. In sequences related to the protagonist\’s vivid imagination – dreams and nightmares – stop motion animation and in-camera effects will be combined with live action, which will add a certain element of fantasy to the film. Balance of the dramatic reality and the playfulness will be achieved by using natural light and hand-held camera.

With The Bus To Amerika, I would like to reach anyone of any age who has their own version of a dream, has ever cheated a little for something very tasty, ever made a sacrifice for their loved ones, and ever had the courage to face the consequences of their mistakes. When I do so, I hope the viewer will be able to put themselves in my hero’s shoes and realize that ‘the refugee’ could be anyone, even themselves.