Where to watch the free 90-minute documentary Displaced: A Turkish Cypriot Story, what it covers, and the North Cyprus villages and museums featured that you can visit today.
“DISPLACED: A Turkish Cypriot Story” is a feature-length documentary, running 1 hour 27 minutes, presented by Mert Ahmet and published free on [YouTube](https://youtu.be/S0JfaaN6duQ) by the channel [Freedom and Fairness for Northern Cyprus](https://www.youtube.com/@freedomfairnessnortherncyprus). It gathers first-hand testimony from older islanders recalling life in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, filmed on location in villages across the north. If you are travelling here and want context for the memorials, village monuments and museum rooms you will pass, this is the most accessible single source currently available in English.
The film is built around interviews rather than narration. English-language linking passages set out dates and places, and the bulk of the running time is given to residents speaking in Turkish about their own villages, homes and families. The camera returns repeatedly to the places being described — roadside memorials, rebuilt village squares, quiet lanes with almond trees — so the testimony is anchored to landscapes travellers actually drive through.
It is a community film, not a broadcaster production. It is presented by Mert Ahmet, whose wider work is published on the [Mert Ahmet Media](https://www.youtube.com/@mertahmetmedia) channel, and the documentary itself is hosted by the YouTube channel [Freedom and Fairness for Northern Cyprus](https://www.youtube.com/@freedomfairnessnortherncyprus). The interviewees are not captioned by name on screen, so we have not attributed quotes to individuals here.
Watch it before you travel rather than on the road. The Turkish testimony carries most of the meaning and comes with burnt-in English subtitles, so it reads best on a decent-sized screen rather than a phone in a hire car.
The documentary follows one thread across three periods: the unrest of the late 1950s, the breakdown of the shared constitutional arrangements agreed when the Republic of Cyprus was established in 1960, and the upheaval of the mid-1970s that led many families to move permanently from villages in the south to villages in the north. Interviewees describe years spent in enclaves with limited food and supplies, the long wait for news, and the eventual resettlement into houses that had belonged to others.
In broad order, the film moves through six stretches, and it is worth knowing what is coming before you sit down with it.
Running through all six is a set of recurring threads: the accounts of women and of people who were children at the time, families still waiting on news of relatives, and the role of food, hospitality and neighbourliness in holding communities together. There are no dramatised reconstructions and no expert commentary — the film uses interviews, present-day footage of the villages and a small amount of archive photography, and it leaves political argument alone.
The closing section is about memory rather than politics. Several contributors describe crossing back to look at their old villages once travel between the two administrations became possible; others say they have chosen never to go. The film ends on a shared point: that nobody on the island should have to live through those years again.
This is not light viewing, and it is not a tourism film. It matters for travellers because it explains, in the words of people who were there, why so many villages here have a monument at their entrance and why so many families in Kyrenia, Nicosia and Famagusta trace their roots to somewhere else on the island.
Almost everywhere the crew filmed is reachable on a normal self-drive itinerary. The following are the recurring locations, with what you will actually find there today.
The film devotes a long section to Erenköy and the neighbouring villages of Bozdağ, Selçuklu, Mansura and Alevkaya, on the coast west of Güzelyurt. The area is a military zone and cannot be entered casually, but the coastal road through [Lefke](/areas/lefke) passes viewpoints over it, and Lefke itself is an easy half-day from Güzelyurt with citrus groves, an Ottoman-era core and quiet cafés.
Both villages, inland from [Famagusta (Gazimağusa)](/areas/famagusta), carry memorials to events of November 1967 that the film visits directly. They are small working villages rather than sights, and are best combined with a wider Mesarya plain drive rather than visited on their own.
Taşkent sits on the escarpment above [Kyrenia (Girne)](/areas/kyrenia) and features in the film's final third. The village is a short drive from [St. Hilarion Castle](/places/st-hilarion-castle), and the run up the mountain road gives one of the best coastal panoramas on the island.
Much of the archival context sits in the capital. [Nicosia (Lefkoşa)](/areas/nicosia) holds the densest concentration of collections in the north — see our guide to the [best museums in North Nicosia](/guides/best-museums-in-north-nicosia-culture-history-explored) for opening hours and a sensible walking order, and [historical sites in Nicosia](/guides/historical-sites-nicosia-north-cyprus-explore) for the wider old-city circuit.
Several sites in the film are inside or beside active military areas. Photography is prohibited where signs show a camera symbol, and this is enforced. If in doubt, put the camera away — a fine or a confiscated phone is a poor souvenir.
Most visitors watch the film at home and then use it loosely as a thread for one day of their trip. A workable version from [Kyrenia (Girne)](/areas/kyrenia): drive up to Taşkent for the view first thing, continue to [St. Hilarion Castle](/places/st-hilarion-castle) for late morning, then drop into Nicosia for the museums and lunch in the old city. Reckon on 45 minutes Kyrenia to Nicosia and a full tank; see [best day trips from Kyrenia](/guides/best-day-trips-from-kyrenia-explore-north-cyprus) for alternatives.
A hire car is effectively required for the village locations — there is no bus that links them, and taxis will not wait. Budget roughly £25–£40 per day for a small car outside July and August. Museum entry across the north generally runs £2–£6 per site, and village memorials are free.
For the cultural background the film assumes, [Turkish Cypriot traditions](/guides/turkish-cypriot-traditions-embracing-the-rich-local-culture) covers the customs, hospitality norms and family structures that recur throughout the testimony.
The documentary is free on YouTube at [youtu.be/S0JfaaN6duQ](https://youtu.be/S0JfaaN6duQ), embedded at the top of this page. It plays on any device, casts to a television, and can be saved offline in the YouTube app for viewing on the flight over. There is no DVD, streaming-service or cinema release.
Watched with that context, the film changes how the north reads on the ground: the monuments at village entrances stop being roadside furniture, and the mix of accents and family origins in Kyrenia and Famagusta starts to make sense. It is 90 minutes well spent before a first visit.
Related reading: [Turkish Cypriot traditions](/guides/turkish-cypriot-traditions-embracing-the-rich-local-culture), [best museums in North Nicosia](/guides/best-museums-in-north-nicosia-culture-history-explored), [historical sites in Nicosia](/guides/historical-sites-nicosia-north-cyprus-explore) and [things to do in Famagusta Old Town](/guides/things-do-famagusta-old-town-historical).
The documentary runs 1 hour 27 minutes and 23 seconds. It is structured as a single continuous film rather than episodes, and the argument builds across the running time, so it is best watched in one sitting. Allow a little longer if you are reading subtitles throughout.
It is published free on YouTube by the channel Freedom and Fairness for Northern Cyprus and is embedded at the top of this page. No account or subscription is needed. There is no DVD, cinema or streaming-service release, and the YouTube app allows offline saving if you want to watch it on the flight over.
Both. The linking narration that sets out dates and places is in English, while the interviews — which make up most of the running time — are in Turkish. The Turkish interviews come with permanent burnt-in English subtitles, so there is nothing to switch on. YouTube's automatic captions and auto-translation are also available from the CC and settings menus if you prefer another language.
Most of them, yes. Taşkent above Kyrenia, the villages of Geçitkale and Boğaziçi inland from Famagusta, and the museum collections in Nicosia are all open to visitors and reachable by hire car. Erenköy on the north-west coast sits inside a military zone and cannot be entered, although the coastal road through Lefke passes viewpoints over the area.
The film contains detailed spoken accounts of violence and loss and is not suitable for younger children. Older teenagers studying modern history will follow it, but it is worth watching yourself first and deciding. There is little graphic imagery; the difficulty is in the testimony rather than what is shown on screen.
Before. The English narration assumes no prior knowledge, so it works well as preparation, and knowing the background changes how the village memorials and museum rooms read once you are here. Watching on a phone in a hire car is not practical given the burnt-in subtitles and the length.
The film is presented by Mert Ahmet, whose wider video work is published on the Mert Ahmet Media channel on YouTube. The documentary itself is hosted on the Freedom and Fairness for Northern Cyprus channel. Interviewees are not captioned by name on screen, so individual testimony in the film is not attributed to named contributors.