A Bristol mum ‘upped sticks’ with her husband to farm in the Turkish mountains, taking along their six kids and bringing another two into the world while they lived there. Emma Isik, who moved back to Bristol with her family last year, has now reflected on their "tough but idyllic" lifestyle after years of living off-grid in the Gaziantep area.
Emma, now a mum-of-eight, is the star in a documentary which won at the Frankfurt Turkish Film Festival on Monday (June 12). It followed some of the family's journey, which began back in 2016 when they moved from their comfortable home in Bristol.
Admitting she was initially reluctant, Emma said: “My husband Mehmet is Turkish and had the grand idea to pick up sticks and go, as he had grown up on a farm and wanted to go back to his roots. Going from a city life to a farm was a massive culture shock.”
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In summer they would camp on the land, and in colder months they would move into a run-down building she described as a "shack", for extra warmth and shelter. Emma started off only knowing a smattering of the language spoken in that area, but soon became fluent.
The 37-year-old said: “In the summertime, the temperatures go up to 48 degrees, so we took the sheep up to the highlands. When we got there we set up camp where you stay from April until October.
"Everything is done outside and you are up by 5.30am to feed the sheep. If you work, you eat, if you don’t, there is no food."
At the camp, they took a tractor with a tank of water with a hosepipe attached for bathing. Emma said: “The kids loved it, there were no phones or tablets. In October time, we moved into a shack which was half dilapidated and it could get to -20 degrees with snow that was knee deep.”
As the pipes would freeze over, there was no running water and no central heating. She said: “We had to pick up wood from the field and burn it over winter. There was one warm room where we would eat and sleep and we would cook in there.”
There were times, Emma said, when she would think “What am I doing here?” - especially around Christmas time, which she said was so different to her home life in England. She said: “I would be in the snow, chopping wood for fire and there were moments like that, but I would give myself a shake.”
Emma grew up in Swindon and moved to Bedminster when she was 18, where she met her husband. She said she also learned so much while on the farm, where they almost entirely relied on living off the land.
She explained: “I learned how to make things from scratch like yoghurt, cheese and bread. We used sheep’s milk and grew a cherry orchard, olives and pistachios to sell and for our own use. It sounds idyllic but it comes with a tough life.”
For the award-winning documentary, she was contacted by filmmaker Merve Kus Mataraci, who had seen Emma’s blog ‘Farmer in the Mountains'. Emma said at first she was reluctant to make the documentary but then agreed, and filming took place showing the family’s lives in the different seasons.
The documentary took an honest look at life on a farm in the mountains of the Turkish province and was named after her, titled ‘Emma’. It won the documentary category at the festival, with filming having taken place over a two year period.
It was among seven documentaries shortlisted from 1,400 entries. Emma said: “it feels unreal, but very thankful that I was given this opportunity to get this experience.
“Not only is this a memory caught on film for our future generations, but the whole thing helped me to gain the confidence to be comfy in the shoes I am already wearing. Thanks to the film producer, Merve Kus Mataraci and all the crew who were involved.”
Emma returned to live in Long Ashton with her husband and eight children, having had two babies while in Turkey, towards the end of 2022. She said: “The kids [previously] went to a school with a classroom with a blackboard and about 10 kids in a class. During Covid, they didn’t go to school at all.
“All good things come to an end, we came back as I want them to learn English and have an education. They are missing the freedom they had and are trying to adapt to life here,” she said, adding that while farm life was hard, it also brought a sense of freedom which she had never experienced living in a city.
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