10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

The road that the five need to take is patrolled by police cars: Two patrolmen watch the road. The two patrolmen notice a 1982 Chevrolet Silverado racing past them, holding several people holding pickaxes. Humeyra loses her balance and accidentally drops her pickaxe.

The patrolmen radio into dispatch and report a suspicious truck headed toward Kilyos, where there is nothing but the Cemetery of the Companionless.

Kilyos is a quiet coastal town an hour away from Istanbul. Boats of asylum seekers sometimes capsize off the coast of Kilyos, and their bodies are pulled from the water and buried in the Cemetery of the Companionless. They are buried among serial killers, people with psychiatric disabilities, runaways, people with substance use disorders, unwed mothers, and others.

Leila’s grave is marked 7053.

The five arrive at the Cemetery of the Companionless and hurriedly get out of the car. Several of the friends complain about Nostalgic Nalan’s driving skills; Zaynab122 asks for Nostalgic Nalan not to swear in the cemetery. Nostalgic Nalan leads them through the gates of the cemetery.

The five trek through the cemetery with digging tools and a wheelbarrow. They note the scent of decay and death, and Sabotage Sinan is distressed. They tease him and carry on through the cemetery.

Sabotage Sinan pulls out a cigarette, and Nostalgia Nalan yells at him to put it out so that they don’t attract attention. As Nostalgia Nalan is walking, her boot gets caught on a tree root, and she curses as she tries to regain her balance. Zaynab122 reminds her not to curse because the djinn will hear them. Nostalgia Nalan believes that religion blinds people from the world around them, causing them to live in fear.

Nostalgia Nalan decides to go ahead of the group to look for Leila’s grave. Humeyra sees that Sabotage Sinan is anxious and offers him some vodka. When Nostalgia Nalan returns, she claims that she’s found Leila’s grave and that the liquor in her flask was a special 97 proof vodka.

The grave is a mound of dirt with a number written on a wooden board. They pause for Zaynab122 to say a prayer over the grave. After a moment of silence, Nostalgia Nalan digs into the grave.

Sabotage Sinan stands at the side of the grave, drunk. Humeyra and Zaynab122 try to calm him, but he feels chastised by their care. After Nostalgia Nalan finishes digging the grave, they all stare down at the body in the dirt. Zaynab122, being deeply religious, is saddened at seeing Leila’s body treated this way.

As they figure out a plan to lift Leila’s body out of the grave, Sabotage Sinan stumbles and falls into it. They hurriedly try to pull him out of the grave and realize that they exhumed the wrong grave. Embarrassed, Nalan remarks that the writing on the paper was almost illegible.

Once they find Leila’s grave, they exhume her body and place it in the wheelbarrow. As they begin to move back toward their truck, they run into a pack of feral dogs. To avoid being attacked, Humeyra throws leftover food at them. The five quickly continue forward.

As it begins to pour rain, the five notice two police cars parked in the distance. Nostalgia Nalan decides to carry Leila’s body because the wheelbarrow is too noisy. They plan to sneak into the truck in the dark, only turning the lights on when they pass the policemen. Nostalgia Nalan remembers going to dinner with Leila and D/Ali. Nostalgia Nalan believed that D/Ali did not introduce her or Leila to any of his revolutionist friends because he was ashamed of their work; she was going to ask him about this at dinner.

Before Nostalgia Nalan was able to ask him, D/Ali asked her what the difference between European and Western cities is. He claimed that the greatest difference was in the cemeteries and how the dead were involved in everyday life. He claimed that Istanbul is the property of the dead because the cemeteries loom around every corner. Nostalgia Nalan decided not to ask her question.

Back in the Cemetery of the Companionless, the five, and Leila’s body, are pushed into the pickup truck. As Nostalgia Nalan starts the car, music from the radio blasts and catches the attention of the police.

The five speed down the road toward Istanbul. Nostalgia Nalan has the idea to pull into a ditch and turn the lights off. When her plan succeeds, she turns in the other direction and drives toward the graveyard that D/Ali is buried in. As they drive, Sabotage Sinan thinks about how the events of the day could impact his family. He thinks of Leila with great sadness and regrets never telling her that he was in love with her.

As they approach the cemetery called Bebek, they notice a police car sitting at the top of the hill. Nostalgia Nalan quickly turns the car around, and the five try to come up with a new plan for Leila’s reburial. Zaynab122 tells them that they should throw Leila’s body in the sea: She remembers Leila telling her about the fish that was released into the ocean when she was born and that when she died, she would find that fish. The five take Leila’s body to the Bosphorus Bridge.