John Berger at 100 | Film: "Taskafa, Stories of the Street"

An essay film looking at the relationship between power and the public. Gareth Evans will be in conversation with Andrea Luka Zimmerman. Part of John Berger at 100 - a film and event series - in conversation with Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Gareth Evans Film series 04: Taskafa, Stories of the Street (Andrea Luka Zimmerman, 2013, Turkey / UK). 66 mins, English subtitles. An artist’s essay film searching for the role played in the city by Istanbul’s street dogs and their relationship to its human populations. Through this exploration, the film opens a window on the contested relationship between power and the public, community and categorisation (in location and identity), and the ongoing struggle / resistance against a single way of seeing and being. Despite several major attempts by Istanbul's rulers, politicians and planners over the last 400 years to erase them, the city’s street dogs have persisted thanks to an enduring alliance with widespread civilian communities, which recognize and defend their right to co-exist. Taskafa gathers the voices of diverse Istanbul residents, shopkeepers, and street based workers, all of whom display a striking commitment to the wellbeing and future of the city’s canine and feline populations (a community of street dogs, and cats, free of formal ownership but fed and cared for by numerous individuals). John Berger’s voice and text, drawn from his novel King, take the viewer on a journey across time and place, always in solidarity. Preceded by the UK premiere of Res Nullius (Xintong Xu, 2026, China / UK). 10 mins, English subtitles. Drawing from the legal vacuum in China where companion animals become res nullius — legally ownerless — the moment they are abandoned, the film looks unflinchingly at the historical structures of power hidden behind specific animal suffering. Andrea Luka Zimmerman is a Jarman Award-winning artist and filmmaker whose multilayered practice has been described as Intuitive Cinema. It embodies and explores fragile refusals and counter memories, and itinerant lives, human and otherwise, in relation to structural and political injustice. Their many films include: Estate, a Reverie (2015), Erase and Forget (2017), Artangel-produced Here for Life (2019) and The Wapping Project-produced Wayfaring Stranger (2024, featuring Eileen Myles), which have screened widely around the world including at Locarno, IDFA, Istanbul, Berlin, BAFICI and IFFR festivals, as well as in cinemas, galleries, and community and activist spaces (https://andrealukazimmerman.com/). The writer John Berger was born 100 years ago this 5th November at 1 Filey Avenue, Stoke Newington. The author of more than 60 books, a Booker Prize-winner, filmmaker and artist, he is one of the most influential and loved writers of our times. Gareth Evans is a Hackney-based writer, editor, film / event producer, creative consultant and host / presenter. He works on special projects for the London Review of Books and curates / hosts their 'Screen at Home' series (garethevans.org.uk/). John Berger image credit: Wikimedia Commons, user Ji-Elle, shared under license 3.0.