The term “mantra” means either a word or sound that is believed to have special
spiritual power or a word/phrase that is often repeated and expresses a particularly
strong belief (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.). There are six mantras mentioned in the film,
bringing the vagueness of the concept since it is not mentioned on purpose, whether
mantras are the songs played along in the film or the voice-over texts. As Conomos
states, in essence, the essay film is hybrid, open-ended, and nonhierarchical in its
pluralistic image – sound – spatial figurations, instead of following a linear narrative path
(2016). The subjectivity and the nonlinear structure become apparent both in the
names given to mantras and the voice-over text, which relates with Pantenburg’s
statement on essay films: the spotlight is on the filmmaker who categorizes, organizes,
and claims his/her ideas clearly on the material, instead of subject matter in contrast
to classical documentaries (2015).

The concept, “hermitage space” is on the mental level in the film, defining a
situation somewhere between the meditation concentration and an abstract dream
world, highly based on my experiences during the lockdown. As I was learning how to
compose music a few years ago, I started to make instrumental mantras without
intention. I was inclined to make a melody out of improvisations, repeat it several times,
and add some variations to make a song, which turned the outcome into a mantra at
the same time. During the lockdown, I lost connection to life. The question “When
everything stays the same in my life, are the emotions and feelings stay the same either, and if not, can I analyze the change in my mental and emotional condition via
music?” brought me to the decision of keeping a mantra journal by filming myself as I
compose both for saving the notes and versions to play again later on. The film is
constructed on these recordings, it is either an essay film or a report of the mantras I
recorded in 2020 and 2021.

The visuality of the swing is correlated with the lockdown, the metaphor of both
time and the limited, defined, isolated experiences of quarantine. Similar to a
pendulum, it goes back and forth and the speed slowly increases along the film. The
sudden change due to the coronavirus affected the rhythm, the routines, the perception
of reality and time. Hence, the video is played in reverse, in slow motion, and became
a fictional image of the “reality” by these double effects, similar to the extraordinary
conditions of pandemic, which seem to become ordinary with manipulated, repeated
and constant dystopic experiences. Meanwhile the visual-audio structure follows a
similar path to the film, News from Home, by Chantel Akerman. “Home” occurs as a
literary construct in the film whose interpersonal, cultural, and historical aspects
overflow into personality and the subjective perspective of the urban environment, and
the visual components serves as an opposition to the notion of home, which is
regarding as a place of shared comfort and tradition, by displaying whatever is not
home (Dima, 2020). Similarly, the images of the swing represent the absence of the
concepts and personal details mentioned in the text. The city, Markiz Patisserie,
school, guitar, room, telephone, camera, videos, Aegean sea, and birds are forming
the essay with the simultaneous absence of corresponding objects. In addition,
overlapping voiceover and mantras dominated the still swing image, which more likely
is just the opposite: calm and silent.

The indications of time and changes of current life in the voiceover text are either
memories or rumors in the film but they are not fictional. During the lockdown, my
university switched to online education (Figure 1), Markiz Patisserie was closed for
years (Figure 2). Currently, it is restored to be open again, (Figure 3). These “changes”
emphasize the distraction and the time gaps. The order of mentioning these events in
voice-over text fictionalized the facts. Fiction, fantasy, and nostalgia were the
highlighted methods to deal with changes and extreme conditions. And in the end,
hope is remembered and yet emerged.

Neither the virus nor the hermitage condition came to an end. Architecture left
its appearance in the film since it could not break the connections with reality, currency,
and identity. Its visuality is indicated with the absence; but its three-dimensional
existence is open to discussion in the vague, suspicious, questionable environment of
the essay film. As Godard claims: “ Why am I making this film, why am I making in this
way?… I am constantly asking questions. I watch myself filming, and you hear me
aloud. In other words, it isn’t a film. It’s an attempt at film and presented as such”
(Narboni & Milne, 1972), film is the medium of asking questions, more and more.

Conomos, J. (2016). The self-portrait and the film and video essay. In HINKSON M.
(Ed.), Imaging Identity: Media, memory and portraiture in the digital age (pp. 85-100).
Australia: ANU Press. Retrieved June 18, 2021, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1rrd7ms.10
Dima, F. (2020). Home Movies as Territory and Narration: On (self-) Reflections In
Essay Films. Academic Journal of National University of Theatre and Film “I. L.
Caragiale”. 4(1): 54, Retrieved from:
https://www.unatc.ro/cercetare/reviste/CloseUp_Vol4No1_2020.pdf#page=51
Mantra. (n.d.). In Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mantra
Volker, P. (2015). Deviation As Norm—Notes On The Essay Film. Amsterdam
University Press.
doi: 10.1515/9789048527557-005
Url 1 <https://twitter.com/itu1773/status/1242122842579353600
Url
2 <https://www.sabah.com.tr/ekonomi/2009/09/19/169_yillik_markiz_zamana_yenildi
_pastasi_tarih_oldu
Url 3 <https://www.milliyet.com.tr/gundem/bir-donem-sapkasiz-girilmiyordu-geri-
donuyor-6503775