By Hale Sofia Schatz
A stunningly beautiful and captivating documentary, Daughters of Anatolia follows a family of nomadic goat herders as they and their animals travel an ancient seasonal migration route - a centuries-old tradition and form of livelihood that is coming under increasing pressure from the outside world.
For a thousand years, the Gok family have been following the same migration route, from the temperate winters along the Mediterranean Sea to the cool summers in the Taurus Mountains, and back again. It is a route their ancestors pursued in order to provide forage for the animals through the year, and it is still of vital importance.
The family relies entirely on their 350 goats for their sustenance and livelihood: They make, eat and sell cheese and yogurt from the milk. They shear, spin, weave, and sell goat wool. They butcher the animals for their own meat consumption. In recent years, these traditional nomadic routes have been impacted by land and water use restrictions that increasingly have made it difficult for them to follow their way of life.
Since 2011, Producer/Director Hale Sofia Schatz has lived and traveled with this family. Her images, capturing both the hardships of such a life as well as the intimate moments universal to any family unit, are breathtaking. Schatz has taken a portrait of a single family and expanded it, offering a window not only on their world, but ours as well, both in the midst of upheaval.
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