THE ROAR OF THEIR ENGINES

‘’Time behaves differently here’’. We had heard that one before and we heard it again when filming The Roar of their Engines. Our perception of time is shaped by many different factors, social and cultural ones, that’s no secret. Mediterranean cultures tend to have a slower, more down-to-earth tempo compared to our North-American fast way of life. We also knew that, but Turkish Cypriots living in the de facto state of Northern Cyprus, which is only accessible by a few checkpoint-littered roads, are really on a world of their own. That. We didn’t fully understand until we got there.

The making of this movie was initially fueled by our desire to explore Cyprus’ landscape and how a 50 years-old ongoing conflict had impacted that landscape; effectively turning portions of the island into time capsules, frozen since 1974. Quickly though, when filming, we came across an unexpected element that acted as another reminder that this conflict was indeed not over : a heavy militarized presence wherever we went. Helicopters and jets flying by, military trucks, war cries and training sessions interrupting our shooting schedule many times, up to a point that we decided to incorporate these to our sound design, and make it the center of our story.

The end result is a subtle and tender portrait of a region and its inhabitants where past and present-time seems to blend into one another, as if the sun under which Turkey and Greece fought 50 years ago has still never set on the horizon.