Since 2007, the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus has been conducting excavations in the Kyrenia Mountains with the hopes of returning the remains of Greek and Turkish Cypriots to their respective families. Skeletons are exhumed; mass graves are uncovered with the help of surviving anonymous witnesses. These individuals have been missing since the tragedies of 1963/64 and 1974.

With staggering camerawork and a poised pace, “Colony” unearths Cyprus’s unsettling memory of conflict. Exploring the issues of trauma, remembrance and reconciliation, the film delves into the intricate relationship between geography and human psychology.

Özge Calafato