Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills

The cast-offs of modern urban society are driven out onto the edges of the city and left to make a life there for themselves. They are not, however, in any natural wilderness, but in a world of refuse and useless junk - a place which denies any form of sustainable life. Here, the unemployed, the homeless, the old and the bereft struggle to build shelters out of old tin cans, scavenge for food and fight against insuperable odds. There is the mysterious great wind that flattens their homes every night and cripples their children; the industrial pollution from the factory which slowly disfigures them. Some of the lucky ones find work, but are ruthlessly exploited, denied everything except their pitiful wages. All attempts at asserting their dignity are doomed to failure, either by the outside world of cops, lawyers, thugs and businessmen, or by their own frustration and anger.
And yet somehow they survive: it seems that society thrives on the garbage hills because it has always been built on one. In this dark fairy tale full of scenes taken from what has increasingly become a way of life for many inhabitants on this planet, Latife Tekin has written a grim parable of human destiny.