Tasting Memory

Tasting Memory is an interactive collaborative documentary film produced as part of the Phoenix Project. This research-based documentary explores the triangular relationship between food, migration, and identity, focusing on how Syrian cuisine transformed and was transformed in Türkiye by people, cultures, languages and identities. Bringing together visual researchers and a diverse project team, the film investigates how culinary practices adapt and evolve through cultural encounters, language, and belonging.

Under the supervision of the project coordinator Dr. Susan Beth Rottmann, Dr. Zeynep Merve Uygun took on the role of the director of the documentary film while Darya Mahçup created the visual world of the project. Starting with weekly meetings in September 2024, and finalised in June 2025, Tasting Memory relied on research conducted about/with Syrians as part of PHOENIX project and a related TUBITAK 1001 project (Food, Homemaking and Social Integration for Syrian Women in Istanbul, Gaziantep and Hatay) led by Dr. Susan Beth Rottmann, testimonials by the participants and the shootings of Darya Mahçup. After a long exploration and preparation process, in other words, the pre-production phase, an interactive documentary model was designed and then Darya Mahçup collected visual footage.

Tasting Memory employed documentary filmmaking as its primary research methodology while integrating perspectives from visual anthropology, sociology and human geography to examine the social dynamics shaping Turkish-Syrian interactions. Its collaborative nature stems not only from its interdisciplinary approach and team but also from the active and multi-layered involvement of one of the participants and his family throughout the entire research process. Yousef Saleh took on the role of translator and cultural mediator, contributing to the initial interviews that formed the basis of the research, many of which he conducted and translated together with Dr. Susan Beth Rottmann from the early stages of the project. Later, he re-engaged with these interviewees—many of whom were his own family members—and facilitated additional filming opportunities for the production team, allowing the project to build upon earlier narratives. In the production phase, he and his family generously opened their homes for the recipe shootings and further supported the creative process: he appeared on camera, wrote texts, recorded voice-overs, contributed to storytelling, shared design ideas, and provided Syrian cultural props for the animated collages. In this way, both Yousef and his family collectively and cumulatively became co-creators of the project, which is perfectly in line with the participatory and co-creative ethos of the Tasting Memory team.

The film’s interactive visual interface is also designed accordingly. An interactive video software Stornaway is used which provides a non linear, branch narrative structure that reflects the fragmented and fluid nature of memory, inviting viewers to engage sensorially with thematic layers rather than follow a linear storyline. Recipes serve as story triggers, opening pathways into personal narratives of migration.