Arriving in Istanbul, a small crew commissioned to make a film about the city begin interviewing people they meet about everyday life.
Viewing the footage in the cutting room, the director observes shadows and figures in the background that he hadn’t noticed at the time of filming – as if the camera had captured ghosts he couldn’t see.
Fascinated by the city’s unseen occupants and drawn to Istanbul’s darker side, the director obsessively seeks out the older, lonelier neighbourhoods, filming alone at night in the hope of finding more ghosts.
As his journey takes him from the present day into the city’s past, his pictures and encounters come together to form a magically melancholic portrait of this mysterious ancient city.
An expressionist work with hints of the supernatural, Hasret (Yearning) is the latest work from critically acclaimed British filmmaker, Ben Hopkins.