The screening program prepared in parallel with Salt’s Life of Animals exhibition, Following a Breath, will meet with the audience on July 3 at Salt Beyoğlu’s Open Cinema. The program consists of documentaries that question the concepts of shared life, mutual dependence, and value between humans and animals. The selected works discuss how life is shared between different species through art and cinema. The program takes its name from the etymological origin of the word “animal,” which derives from the Latin word “anima,” meaning ‘breath’ and “soul.”
The screening program will open on Thursday, July 3, at 7:00 p.m. with the documentary Cow, followed by Butenland on July 5 and Kala Azar on July 17. David Allen’s My Garden of a Thousand Bees, which explores the lives of urban bees, is also included in the selection.
Directed by Andrea Arnold, Cow brings the daily life of a dairy cow to the screen with an intimate and poignant observation. The camera follows the entire life cycle of the cow, from birth to milking, its relationship with its calves, and its contact with humans, in its natural flow. The film, which makes the world of farm animals—usually rendered invisible—visible, invites the viewer to empathize with the animals, creating an emotional intensity with its quiet and undramatized narrative. Arnold emphasizes that with this work, she is “trying to understand what it’s like to be an animal.” Another production featured in the screening program and supported by Goethe-Institut Istanbul is Butenland, directed by Marc Pierschel. The film documents how a former dairy farmer and an animal rights activist transform a traditional farm into a sanctuary where animals can live freely without being treated as commodities. This documentary, which encourages reflection on animal freedom and alternative lifestyles, calls for moving beyond species-based domination.
Anis Rafa’s film Kala Azar explores grief, care, and inter-species bonds through a couple who collect the bodies of domestic animals. The film poetically and evocatively depicts relationships shaped around death and memory.
David Allen’s documentary My Garden of a Thousand Bees sheds light on the often overlooked complex world of insects by observing the lives of bees in an urban garden. The film reveals the great life within a small ecosystem, offering a new awareness of relationships with non-human life.
The selection brings together perspectives that encourage us to rethink humanity’s place among different species and to imagine relationship forms based on care, empathy, and shared fragility.
The program “In the Footsteps of a Breath,” prepared by Joanna Zielińska and Alâ Taleb from Salt, is open to everyone and free of charge. Screenings will continue at Salt Beyoğlu’s Open Cinema space until August 10.
