The Navel Mountain

On a limestone plateau in Zuidoost Anatolië. On a random morning in the mid-eighties, near Urfa (Turkey), an old farmer plows his field and stumbles upon an unusual stone. Convinced that his find is valuable, he lifts the stone onto his cart and drives to the local museum. The director dismisses him. The stone is lime, just lime. Disappointed, the farmer leaves his find in the museum garden. And then the mountain opens: under the rustling grain, the sheet becomes a map, veins branch into streets, ribs rise into walls, the beating heart of a town square. Between mythical intuition and precise action, a soft fever dream unfolds. De Navelberg is a dance between man, nature, and archaeology. Not a reconstruction but an invitation to discover the treasures in the mountain together. An unsolved question about the status of the monument and those who made it but never saw it finished. An ode to the wonderful, whether or not destructive, ability of man. De Navelberg is a visual and physical experience by and with Ali Can Ünal where the scenographer is an active player: buildings slide, surfaces tilt, shadow becomes drawing. A strange and enchanting descent into the mountain and through the pores of time.