Southwest is about our world and the choices we make...

It is a story about Leslie, a middle-aged Dutch woman who lives in the southwest of Turkey. In secret, she helps illegal immigrants from Africa and the Middle-East to get into the European Union.



But one day, someone knocks on her door - and it turns out to be her son, Daan, who she hasn't seen in years. He tells her she has a family waiting for her back in the Netherlands, a family that really needs her.



Leslie has to choose between the people she believes need her help to find a better life, and the people who love her and can no longer live without her.



Southwest is a film about responsibility for our own lives and those of others. About how our choices not only affect us, but also the people who love us. As the great French filmmaker Claire Denis says, "it's about love in a way, and what happens when you tangle with something that is stronger than you are."



It is also the director and producer's thesis film for their Master of Fine Arts degree at Columbia University in New York.  

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After this film premieres at the renowned New Directors/New Films Festival in New York City in March, it will screen at the Columbia University Film Festival in May and hopefully many more festivals around the world.  

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We plan to follow up on this project with a feature film we are developing around the same characters and themes. Stay tuned!