Living in the Unknown

WINNER AT

“Fiction movie writers wouldn’t be able to imagine and write about the suffering of the Uighur people.”

In Living in the Unknown, Uighur Muslims who escaped from China share their anxiety of not knowing the whereabouts and conditions of their loved ones. They reveal their struggle for preserving their identity and culture amidst the fear of being erased. The stories of these men and women living in Istanbul, Turkey are told through a longform interactive and VR documentary.

Uighur Muslims are ethnic Turks that call the Xinjiang province in northwestern China home. Human rights groups claim that around one million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities are held in Chinese "concentration camps". The Chinese government insists it’s fighting separatism and religious extremism in the region and that the facilities are vocational training centers. Uighurs living abroad say their relatives are not allowed to communicate with them and can get detained just for staying in touch.

Longform Interactive

Explore the stories of four young women fighting to preserve their Uighur language, family and religion –  three pillars of their identity most under attack.

VR Documentary

Habibullah has lost contact with his sister, while Hatice doesn’t know anything about her husband. Watch the stories of three families that cannot get in touch with their relatives in China. Not knowing whether their loved ones are safe, they live free but in limbo.