H. Sevim Işık Bäro

The moment Burcu first shared the concept of Songs of the Mountain, I recognized the project’s intrinsic value in documenting the cultural memory of the Black Sea region. Witnessing its evolution from the very first ideas before formally taking on its production allowed for an organic, genuine connection to the story. Throughout, the production process has simply been about guiding these elements into a clear structure, ensuring the visibility of these women’s stories, and respecting their living heritage.

While Burcu explored the echoes of these mountains, my roots in the steep highlands of Artvin provided a quiet, insider companionship to this journey. Looking at the project from an anthropological perspective, my core instinct from the very beginning was to ask: “Isn’t this story, which appears deeply localized, in truth rooted in our shared world?” This film looks beyond specific geographical boundaries; it serves as a quiet tribute to women who live and endure on mountain ridges across the globe. On these ridges, music is not a professional pursuit but an organic extension of the geography itself, and İlknur is fundamentally part of this reality. We are witnessing perhaps the last generation to live in this close relationship with nature, transforming daily life into song. As this rigorous way of life fades for younger generations, this cultural bond is rapidly fracturing. The coordinates of isolation may change but isn’t the shared reality of these unrecorded lives strikingly similar?”

Driven by this very question, my responsibility as producer has been to safeguard this untamed honesty while forging the film’s path toward a wider world. The early validation our rough cut received on the international circuit reinforced our belief that these voices carry no borders. As we prepare the film for its international premiere, our true purpose is simply to share this story with as many people as possible, and perhaps to offer a glimmer of hope to a young girl somewhere in the world who feels like an outsider.