Nest Egg

Digital and 16 mm b&w film project, 16 min.

Nest Egg is a short artist’s film that documents the artist as she goes through the procedure of human oocyte cryopreservation (egg freezing). The procedure is held in the Netherlands rather than her home country, Turkey, because of the marital law restrictions on the later usage of the frozen oocytes. With a drive to approach this control mechanism over her body and reproductive rights, the story shares the effects of this process from medical and emotional aspects while discussing the position of the artist in the society in relation to traditional family structures.

Borrowing from the staging of the Hidden Mother Photography of the Victorian era, the artist invites the viewer to think about holding the possibility of a child ‘stable’ while fulfilling the expectations of the society and establishing a professional career in the current precarious conditions of the world. The combination of 16 mm black&white film and mobile phone camera footage emphasizes the dilemma of this new technological procedure which deals with the natural cycle of life.

This film was realized with the support of CBK Rotterdam, Stichting Droom en Daad and Filmwerkplaats Rotterdam.