AUFBRUCH is the story of 33 young people who dreamed of a long journey and took a path that did not lead them to their destination. On their way, in the shadow of their memories and fears, this film is an exercise on how and what to tell after a disaster that has not been mourned; a journey parallel to theirs, daydreams in the midst of a battle zone where landscape shots dissect regimes of power. In the summer of 2015, a group of young people from western Turkey organized a humanitarian relief effort to help rebuild the town of Kobane in northern Syria, which was destroyed after being defended against IS. Their trip was more than a relief effort, but a symbolic bridge between Turkish and Kurdish society while peace negotiations are still ongoing. Their journey ended in the border town of Suruç, beyond Kobane, where an IS fighter blew himself up, killing 33 of them. The Suruç massacre was not an attack on the brotherhood of two people, but also a signal of the coming storm, a bloody uprising in Turkey. AUFBRUCH does not focus on this specific event, but on the morale and motivation of these young people to participate in this journey. What moved them from their comfortable milieus? How did they decide to go?

The project will be realized over four years as part of a large-scale oral history and visual memory project with the survivors and witnesses of the massacre, as well as the relatives of those lost. More than one hundred and fifty interviews were conducted by a small crew with no budget during the curfew and state of emergency. The film is a co-production between Turkey and Germany, where post-production and editing were realized.

Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun was born in Istanbul in 1988 and studied history and sociology at Bogazici University. He realized his second short film 'Geranium' in between, which was screened in Trieste, Premier Plans, Montpellier, Istanbul Festivals and in many other festivals. As a volunteer videographer in humanitarian aid operations, he traveled to Africa, Asia, the Balkans and the Caucasus. As an assistant camera and director, he worked with directors Semih Kaplanoğlu, Zeki Demirkubuz, Aida Begic, Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun. He filmed the documentary series "From Inns to Skyscrapers" for Turkish National Television. Focusing on archival practice and media archaeology, he is currently studying media arts at the Karlsruhe University of Design, where he is developing his first feature film "Athlete" with Semih Gülen.