About Artistic Research Feature film in progress Sound Archive: 345 nights Experimental Shorts Expanded Cinema Photography
Single channel, feature length work in progress, Docu-fiction, Uyghur/Uzbek, Netherlands
Directed & Edited by
Darya Andijan
Produced by
Nils Steinmetz
Cinematographer
Letiția Popa
Darya Andijan
Nils Steinmetz
Darya evoked Gülem, a forgotten goddess of carpet weaving from the Uyghur region. They traveled across Central Asia to piece together Gülem’s fragmented beings. Through poetic voices, shared rituals, and ancestral echoes, they explore themes of feminism, oppression, and colonial erasure.
A short film has been made as an outcome of the research. Now this project is looking for creative partners, dutch co producer, and fundings to continue expand on the narritive,
Do You Know That I’m With You is an artistic research-based film exploring political erasure of female history in the Uyghur region of China. Central to the film is Gülem, a mystical figure from Uyghur oral tradition linked to carpet weaving, whose fragmented legacy symbolizes silenced female makers. Through critical fabulation, myth-making, and Sufism, the director embarks on a journey across Transoxiana to piece together Gülem’s presence. The film weaves together imprisoned poet Gulnisa Imin’s verses, read by Uyghur women in diaspora, multi-voiced narration, and archival footage. Poetic yet narrative-driven, it evokes Gülem’s enduring presence through voices, images, and texts, confronting memory, resistance, and identity.
Read more about the research here.