The Navelberg, Ali Can Ünal - Antigone

On a limestone plateau in Southeast Anatolia. 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. Six years later, Klaus Smith, a German archaeologist, walks through that same museum garden. His eyes light up: ‘This stone will redraw history.’ And then the mountain opens: under the rustling grain, a map unfolds, veins branch into streets, ribs rise into walls, the beating heart of a city 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 help discover the treasures in the mountain. An unsolved question about the status of a monument and those who made it but never saw it finished. An ode to the miraculous, whether or not destructive, ability of man. De Navelberg is a visual and musical experience in which buildings slide, surfaces tilt, and shadow transforms into drawing. A strange and enchanting descent into the mountain, through the pores of time. ENG - One morning in the 1980s, an old farmer comes across an unusual piece of limestone near Urfa, Turkey. Years later, both the stone and the place where it was discovered, prove to be of unexpected historical significance. De Navelberg is a visual and musical performance that excavates the archaeological treasures of humankind and nature. A strange and enchanting descent into the mountain and through the very pores of time.