What I Couldn’t Keep

What I Couldn’t Keep is an experimental short film composed of 32 fleeting vignettes from a spring day in Istanbul’s Emirgan Tulip Gardens. Shot entirely at 35mm focal length, it captures the quiet movement of time — from a slow morning commute to unspoken exchanges between friends, strangers, and fading tulips.

Each 2-second clip is paired with a brief poetic reflection, unfolding like fragments of a journal caught between memory and impermanence. The film explores what slips away even as we try to hold on — light, color, emotion, presence.

I directed, shot, edited, and scored the piece using a copyright-free instrumental adaptation of Moon River. The captions were crafted to echo the visual rhythm, making this project a meditation on transience, nostalgia, and the soft weight of the beauty in things that don't last.