Afloat

Zeynep arrives from New York City to a small town on the coast of Turkey with her American husband Stephen. She returns to a family that is broken- parents who are divorced, a younger sister who has become estranged.

The troubled family embarks on a week-long sailing trip, meant to be a last chance for Zeynep’s father Yusuf, a dissident journalist being prosecuted by the government, to reconnect with his daughters before going to prison.

Once they are on the boat, gliding across the deep blue water, their sails filled with wind, it seems like the old times. The family is together again – it’s joyful, it’s hopeful. At least in the beginning. As the trip continues we begin to realize things are not as they seem. This is not a simple family reunion, there is something else under the surface. Tensions rise as the family awaits the result of Yusuf’s appeal, and when a young local man further disrupts the delicate family dynamics the trip takes an unexpected turn.

Aslihan Unaldi is a filmmaker born and raised in Turkiye, now based in Brooklyn, NYC. Driven by an interest in exploring intimate personal stories shaped by larger geopolitical currents, Aslihan's work reflects a commitment to portraying the complexity of human experience.Whether as a screenwriter, director, or both, her work has been showcased at numerous prestigious international festivals.

Her award-winning student short, RAZAN, premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2006, while her environmental feature documentary, OVERDRIVE, commissioned by the World Resources Institute, debuted at the Istanbul Film Festival in 2011. In 2015, amidst the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis, Aslihan spent several months on the Turkish - Syrian border filming young freedom fighters from Aleppo in exile. The resulting multichannel video installation, BORDERSONGS, was exhibited at the esteemed art institution Die Angewandte in Vienna.In September 2021, Aslihan directed her narrative feature, AFLOAT, a family drama on a sailing boat set against the political backdrop of contemporary Turkey. Afloat had its world premiere at the Sao Paulo Film Festival in October 2023 and is currently touring festivals worldwide. Aslihan’s co-writing credits include YOUNG WRESTLERS, which won a special mention at the Berlinale in 2016, and SKATE KITCHEN, which premiered at Sundance in 2018 and was distributed by Magnolia.Aslihan has been invited to participate in various labs and coproduction markets including the Berlinale Script Station, Film Independent Doc Lab, Thessaloniki Crossroads Co-production Forum, Cinephilia Bound Cannes and ACE Producers Lab. She has received grants and funding from prominent organizations such as the Tribeca Film Institute, Netflix, the Sloan Foundation, Topic, and New York Women in Film and TV. She has also been selected as a “Film Independent Fellow” and recognized as a “Young Society Leader” by the American-Turkish Society in New York. Currently, Aslihan teaches screenwriting in the graduate film programs at Columbia University and NYU's Tisch School of Arts, where she herself earned her Master of Fine Arts.

sked possible persecution in making this film - but we did it willingly as we all strongly believed in the film, both artistically and politically. This approach to the production resulted in a film that conveys the intimacy and rawness of a very personal script that has the power to connect with audiences on a deep emotional level.