FROM ASHES
In the aftermath of wildfires, From Ashes explores our relationship with the natural world through the lives of dwindling forest communities.
Across Anatolia, lives are shaped by knowledge of the forest, from the ecology behind pine honey to ancient mountain villages that still depend on the surrounding land. Through the 2021 Turkish wildfires and their aftermath, From Ashes follows these ways of living amid a changing climate and an increasingly charged public response to the fires.
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EPISODE 1
Land of the Honey Bug
Synopsis
Two months after Türkiye’s 2021 wildfires, Hüseyin walks through his village in Muğla, where his home and the surrounding pine forests have been reduced to ash. These forests sustained an ancient beekeeping tradition, rooted in the relationship between honey bee, “honey bug” and pine tree.
The honey bug, a small insect dwelling on pine trees and found almost nowhere else on Earth, lies at the heart of pine honey production.
Land of the Honey Bug follows a community searching for continuity in a landscape that may no longer sustain them. Their search unfolds amid a warming climate, the pressures of human activity and an increasingly charged public response to the fires.
Trailer
Details
- Director-Editor
- Lewis Levent
- Executive Producer
- Julian Oliver
- Producers
- İlkay Bilgiç, Lewis Levent
- Impact Producer
- Canay Atalay
- Production Company
- Gez Studio Ltd
- Year
- 2021–2025
- Country
- Türkiye
- Language
- Turkish, English
- Runtime
- 73 mins
- Status
- Completed
Film stills
EPISODE 2
The Mountainside of Ormana
Synopsis
In Ormana, an 800-year-old village in the Taurus mountains of Türkiye, life is bound to the surrounding forest. During the 2021 wildfires, residents turn to instinct, knowledge and each other as fire descends towards their home.
The Mountainside of Ormana follows their effort to protect a way of life shaped by generations of familiarity with the land. Their response reveals the ties between people and place, where knowledge of the forest and reliance on one another become part of survival.
Through this community’s experience, the film explores our relationship with the natural world, and what it means to belong to a landscape whose future is becoming uncertain.
Trailer
Details
- Director-Editor
- Lewis Levent
- Executive Producer
- Julian Oliver
- Producers
- İlkay Bilgiç, Lewis Levent
- Impact Producer
- Canay Atalay
- Production Company
- Gez Studio Ltd
- Year
- 2021–2025
- Country
- Türkiye
- Language
- Turkish, English
- Runtime
- 55 mins
- Status
- Completed
Film stills
From Ashes Director's Note
In 2021, as wildfires swept across Türkiye, I began documenting the aftermath independently. Returning over four years, I built lasting relationships with communities across two of the five declared disaster zones. My Turkish heritage shaped both my perspective and my responsibility in telling these stories.
Working in Turkish and presenting my reflections in English, I followed community experience alongside the work of researchers, forestry institutions and emergency responders. From Ashes grew organically from the web of stories that emerged through these encounters.
The films explore our relationship with nature through communities who still live close to it. Beekeeping, local knowledge and the ties between generations carry an understanding of the forest that reaches into everyday life. I wanted to give space to these ways of living, to their relationship with the land and its fading influence on society.
