Directed by Caglar Malli
Produced by Selim Kemahli, and Cem Kitapci
Documentary
U.K. | 2019 | 77 min
In Turkish, Greek, Spanish, Ladino, and Hebrew
with English subtitles
The documentary follows Deniz Bensusan, a young Sephardic woman who has come to the realization that her ancestral language Judeo-Espanol, popularly known as Ladino, is on the verge of extinction. With the loss of this language, the community also stands to lose their identity. Alarmed by this, she embarks on a journey of discovery in an attempt to unearth her culture, language, and roots. As she uncovers living family members in distant lands and traces 63 family members to their ends at Auschwitz during the Holocaust, her interest in Sephardic history grows stronger. Her journey is at times emotional and at times full of humour as she meets small surviving communities of Sephardic Jews and discovers her past. To keep the culture and language alive, must the Jewish community be isolated and shun intermarriage? While she grows to appreciate the importance placed on heritage and culture, she grapples with the question: is she willing to make these kinds of sacrifices to perpetuate her family?
Caglar Malli
Caglar Malli was born in 1982. In 2000, he started his BA degree in Political Science at Istanbul Bilgi University, where he studied social sciences and was able to indulge in his lifelong passion, cinema. He began his professional career in film with a television program that he co-directed and produced about film genres called FILM KOPTU in 2007. In 2009 he co-wrote and produced the critically acclaimed short film BUGUN YOK which was screened at many leading film festivals around the world. That same year he started to work as producer at UK-based production company, Case Productions, where he worked on various international projects and events. In 2014, he decided to carry this investigative style of storytelling into documentary filmmaking. Working as an independent director, Caglar shot his first full-length documentary feature project, LABOUR OF LOVE currently available on various international flights and TV stations around the globe. THE FINAL HOUR focuses on the Ladino language which is believed to be disappearing from the face of the earth in about 15 years’ time. Caglar also continues to produce sport films for brands like Red Bull, Nike, Jaguar and organizations like World Kiteboarding League.