Abdurrahman, a music conservatory student, is eager to perform the mevlit (a hymn about the birth of the Prophet Muhammed) just as it was hundreds of years ago. He sets out to learn by meşk (one-to-one training in the traditional arts), an increasingly rare form of teaching given the dwindling number of master practitioners.
During a holy night, Abdurrahman is touched by a beautiful recitation of the mevlit at Istanbul’s famous Sultan Ahmet Mosque and seeks out the mevlitçi (professional orator of mevlit) to ask to become his pupil. The master, Mustafa Başkan, turns out to be Turkey’s leading mevlitçi.
Set in modern times and told as a docu-drama, this classic student-master story is an authentic depiction of receiving meşk. Director Murat Pay captures the special bond between the pupil and teacher who together journey back hundreds of years to the roots of Turkish classical music, visually demonstrating the importance of the tradition of mevlid-i şerifii, and the joy and comfort it brings Muslims during births, deaths, and life’s other critical moments.
Date: Friday 20 November 2015
Start time: 7pm
Duration: 87 minutes
Language: Turkish with English subtitles
Venue address: Yunus Emre Institute, 10 Maple Street, London W1T 5HA
Admission: Free
More info: telephone: 0207 387 30 36 / email: londra@yee.org.tr
