'Peace Envoys' rekindle a nation's memory on Children's Day

 "Peace Envoys" is a documentary that tells the stories of four children who met on Turkey's national Children's Day 20 years ago. It debuted on the 90th anniversary of the April 23 Children's Day in the Aegean province of İzmir on April 22. 

At the end of the documentary, the entire audience applauded, and there was one thing on everybody's minds: it reminded them of the April 23 festivals of their childhoods and its bittersweet memories.   
  
Directed by the awarded documentarist and journalist Günel Cantak, the documentary focuses on the stories of the "peace envoys," children who met around 20 years ago as part of a festival that continues to be held every year on April 23 since 1927.

Cantak said the story behind the documentary emerged after they heard two girls, Hayat Allahverdiyeva from Azerbaijan and Belis Olum from Turkey, living boundaries apart from each other, were calling each other "sisters," adding that he grew more interested when he wanted to coincide the festival with this story.

Speaking to Hürriyet Daily News about his new piece, Cantak said they aimed to break the "stranger" notion. 

 "We began the project in the middle of last year, but we actually started feeling like we were losing the importance of April 23 Children Day's in recent years. The festival has had an impact on our generation; your generation and mine. So, when we looked back to the history of the festival, we asked 'Whose lives has this documentary affected over the years?' We made a quick decision and came to İzmir's Gaziemir municipality," he said. 

Why Gaziemir?

Cantak drew attention to why he picked the Gaziemir district as the location for his documentary, noting that locals from the...