Facts about the Film

The project started in 2002 and is still in progress. Anatolia was explored thoroughly and twice, afterwards, several additional shootings were made at spot locations.

• Total time of footage is more than 350 hours,
• A total of 61 people worked during the filming, 8 of who were camera operators.
• The vehicles travelled around 40.000 kilometers in total.
• A total of 133 performances were recorded in 121 locations and 43 of them were selected for inclusion in the film.
• The editing work took 4 years.
• The soundtrack was ready after 3 years of work, whereas the album was completed in 4 years.
• The making of the film was completed in 8 years.
• 5 of the characters in the film passed away before the premiere.

Lost Songs of Anatolia's world premiere took place in the 27^th International Istanbul Film festival in 2008. Later on, it was screened in the following festivals:

• 45^th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Turkey,
• 31^st Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival, France
• 48^th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greece,
• Docufest 2009 in Kosovo,
• Salento Film Festival 2009, Italy,
• Zagreb Film Festival 2009, Croatia,
• Ghent Film Festival 2009, Belgium  
as well as some others. The local release of the film was in March 2010.

Cultures

The various cultures presented in the film are:

• Circassian Dances from Düzce
• Alevi rituel semah and folk songs from Tokat
• Horon Dance from Trabzon
• Hemşin Songs and improvisations from Rize
• Polyphonic Georgian Songs from Artvin
• Minstrel Quarrel and The Shepherd’s Stran (Kurdish Song) from Kars
• Eagle Dance from Bingöl
• Bektaşi Song from Tunceli
• Dengbej  in Muş
• Cotton field workers’ Work Song from Diyarbakır
• Syriac rituals in Mardin
• Folk songs from Midyat and scenes from Harran
• The Gazel from Urfa
• Barak Song from Gaziantep
• Silk producer’s Work Song in Hatay
• Folk songs and Kirtil Semah Ritual from Silifke
• Bozlak Songs from Kırşehir and  Kırıkkale
• Zeybek Dance and a Karacaoğlan Song from Denizli
• Nomad’s music played with kemane and sipsi from Burdur. Also Lover and the Beloved Dance.
• Gypsy’s Drum and Clarion from Muğla
• Sword and Shield Game from Bursa
• Armenian and Greek Songs
• The Whirling Dervishes!