FINALIST SIYAH KALEM Üstad Mehmed Siyah Kalem Directed by Selin Aktaş Eyüboğlu, Murat K. Toy Doc. / 34 min. / 2025 / with English subtitles An artist whose name is not even fully known pushed the boundaries of imagination in 15th-century Central Asia by telling stories of jinn, giants, and demons, just to vanish right after. He left behind only scattered, fragmented paintings that seemed unrelated to each other. We do not know who he was, nor what he thought or intended to convey. This creative effort is a quest to decipher the meaning his creations—now ours to interact and echo—evoke in our minds. Selected Festivals and Awards Golden Saffron Documentary Film Festival, Safranbolu, Türkiye (2026): Suha Arın Best Documentary Award TRT (Turkish Radio & Television) International Documentary Awards, Türkiye (2025): 3rd Prize in the National Professional Category Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Türkiye (2025) Seattle Turkish Film Festival Documentary Competition, USA (2025) Bosphorus Film Festival, Türkiye (2025) 1001 Documentary Film Festival, Türkiye (2025) Trabzon Film Festival, Türkiye (2025) Directors Selin Aktaş Eyüboğlu and Murat K. Toy Selin Aktaş received her degree in Cinema from Çukurova University and completed her master’s with a thesis titled “The Impact of Digitalization on Editing Practices in Turkish Cinema.” Her short films Suicide Watchman, Hide and Seek, For Sale and The Farmer were screened at national and international festivals. She was also part of the directing team of the documentaries The Voice of a Generation: Rap Alaturka and Vertical Route, both of which were broadcast on TRT. Currently working as an editor at the documentary channel Habitat TV, Aktaş also has over three years of experience as a field camerawoman, covering UEFA, Süper Lig, and EuroLeague matches.     Murat K. Toy (Istanbul, 1972) studied at Marmara University Faculty of Communication. In 1997, he started his career in television and documentary filmmaking as an assistant director on Haberci one of Turkey's longest-running television documentary programmes. Between 2000 and 2002, he directed the programme of the same name. In 2003, he founded his own production companies under the names 81 Yapım and Şarküteri Prodüksiyon. After serving as general director and manager at İz, Turkey's first domestic documentary channel established in 2006 and broadcast on Digiturk, he is currently working as a founding partner and general director of Turkey's New Life Channel, Habitat TV since 2021. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2026 9:00 p.m. Goethe-Institut Boston 170 Beacon Street TICKET INFORMATION: GET YOUR DAILY PASS With the DAILY PASS you can watch any or all the films screened on November 7 OR BUY A COMPETITION PASS With the COMPETITION PASS you can watch all the films screened at the Goethe-Institut Boston on October 30 & Nov. 6-8