Liz Heron speaks to the Enfield-raised film directors behind a documentary exploring the division of Cyprus

*The Divided Island* producer and director Cey Sesiguzel with co-producer Andreas Tokkallos

Two filmmakers have spoken about how their childhood friendship in Enfield inspired them to make a film that seeks to address the ‘Cyprus problem’ by encouraging empathy between the island’s Greek and Turkish communities.

The Divided Island traces the troubled history of Cyprus from British colonial rule to the Greek nationalist insurgency, independence, civil war, the Turkish invasion and partition, and the impact of the long intercommunal conflict on the island’s residents today.

Archival footage paired with commentary from leading experts such as Professor James Ker-Lindsay, of the London School of Economics, and Professor Andrekos Varnava, of Flinders University in Australia, is brought to life through the personal testimony of islanders about the atrocities they witnessed and their hopes for peace and reconciliation.

The film drew a packed house during an extended run at the Arthouse Crouch End, with the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities of North London strongly represented in the audience since it premiered at the cinema in October. It was also shown at Cineworld in Southbury.

Director Cey Sesiguzel and co-producer Andreas Tokkallos spoke about how they came to make the film at a Q&A session that was held following a screening on 25th November, amid enthusiastic clapping from the audience. The pair were childhood friends and classmates at Chace Community School in Enfield Town, where they followed a secondary-level film course before both going on to take degrees in film studies at different universities.

After graduating, Tokkallos and Sesiguzel founded the video production company Two Fresh, which they have jointly run for 15 years, making corporate commercial videos for big-name brands.

“But we decided that we were desperately curious to explore this story, and hopefully, explore it in a way that creates a bit more empathy around this shared trauma that Cypriots have been through,” said Sesiguzel.

The film’s historical narrative is carefully balanced and personal testimonies taken from both sides of the conflict include a Greek woman living in a bicommunal village whose father was taken away and killed and an elderly Turkish mother still mourning her son after 50 years.

It also includes interviews with investigative journalist Sevgül Uludağ, who tracks missing people – uncovering mass graves in the process – and therapist Tom Fortes Mayer, who explains the lasting effects of personal trauma and the need to break the cycle of tit-for-tat.

And it throws a spotlight on efforts by Greek Cypriot Andromachi Sophocleous and Turkish Cypriot Kemal Baykalli, of activist group Unite Cyprus Now, to break down barriers and promote cooperation between the island’s two main communities.

“Personally, when we came to make this film, I had a lot of fear that my own community are going to watch this film and what will they think?,” said Tokkallos. “Even growing up, I heard things in a certain way. I don’t think that was done on purpose. From the trauma of what we went through, you hear the story a certain way.

“But from being very good friends with Cey, going out to the north side [of Cyprus] and hearing how other people experienced it, I learnt that, actually, it is a very complicated situation – still. That’s what we wanted to show, how complex it is.”

After the event, Sesiguzel said the Cypriot community in Enfield was highly integrated when they were growing up and it was common for children from Greek and Turkish families to become friends and form friendship groups.

“I had Greek Cypriot friends at primary school and my mum’s best friend was Greek Cypriot, so we just saw it as [being] Cypriots – for our generation it was so normal,” he said. “When you are kids, you don’t do politics do you?

“But when you get into your teens, you start to be aware of it – 15, 16, 17, that’s when the questions started. We used to have debates about it because we had these two different, polar-opposite viewpoints about the history that had been taught to us and passed down to us.”

Sesiguzel said the debates with teenage friends prompted him to ask himself “What happened? Where is the middle ground?” and he became fascinated with the history of Cyprus and “obsessed with speaking to my elders” about it.

“I’ve studied the subject since I was 17,” he said. “I’ve read every book on Cyprus and watched every film about Cyprus. I got into film-making, so I could make a film about this. I decided [that I wanted] to make a difference.”

A makeshift dividing wall into Nicosia — credit The Divided Island

In the lively Q&A debate, one audience member said the Greeks had deeper wounds due to “hundreds of years of Ottoman oppression” prompting another to retort “bitterness and historical nonsense”. A third pointed to the conflict being stoked from behind the scenes by world powers.

“I think one of the important things that this film does is take a bit of accountability of what Cypriots unfortunately [have] done to each other as well,” said Sesiguzel. “There is a lot of discourse around Turkey, Greece, NATO, USA, CIA, the British etc, and I’m not trying to underplay that.

“But for me the most important step is to realise that, actually, we’ve done that stuff to each other. And I think to achieve success going forward there needs to be unity and the first step towards that is to understand what we [have] done to each other. And I don’t think that’s ever been explored before.”

The two filmmakers recently returned from the Cyprus International Film Festival, where The Divided Island won two awards; ‘best cinematography in a talent feature documentary’, and ‘film with a powerful message for peace’.

“We were really proud of that,” said Sesiguzel. “We also managed to have a meeting with a cinema chain out there, who said they would like to show it.”

Screenings under discussion include shows at cinemas in Nicosia, Larnaca and Limasol.

“So we are hoping that all comes to fruition and people out there will see it as well. It is definitely our goal to get [the film] shown in as many places as possible, so people can come to their own decisions on how they feel about it.”

For more information about The Divided Island:
Visit thedividedisland.com

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