Directed by Kadir Uluç
Located on the banks of the Sakarya River by the village of present-day Yassıhöyük, Gordion is best known for its association with the legendary Phrygian King Midas and the famous episode of the Gordion Knot. The Phrygians most likely arrived at the site, about 70 km southwest of Ankara, in the 12th century BC following the collapse of the Hittite Empire. They continued to dominate the area until it was conquered by Alexander the Great in 333. To date, close to 150 earthen burial mounds or tumuli, by far the largest concentration in Central Anatolia, have been identified in the area, which was placed on UNESCO’s Tentative List of World Heritage in 2012. For thousands of years the most abiding inhabitants of the region have been the shepherds and their herds. In Kadir Uluç’s film ‘The Shepherds of Gordion’, we follow these dauntless shepherds as they set out with their flocks at the first light of dawn, just as their ancestors had been doing for millennia.
Kadir Uluç was born in Diyarbakir in 1967. He graduated from the Ankara University Faculty of Communication’s Department of Radio and Television in 1992 and worked as a cameraman on national television channels until 1997. After obtaining a Master’s Degree from the Ankara University Institute of Educational Sciences, Uluç began working at the Ministry of National Education General Directorate of Educational Technologies, where he specialized in the production of distance-education content. He has also directed programs for TRT 2, TRT 3, TRT 4 and GAP TV. In 2020, Uluç founded his own production company, Uluç Yapım. Uluç’s 2022 documentary ‘The Shepherds of Gordion’ has been screened at numerous festivals in Turkey and abroad. This research-based film on archaeology and cultural heritage received VEKAM’s Special Award for Best Director at the Ankara International Film Festival.
