[Click to Enlarge]

In May 2013, seventeen poets, writers, and scholars from the U.S., Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran met in Konya, in central Turkey, to discuss the poetic legacy of 13^th century mystic Rumi. A new documentary, The Same Gate: A Poetic Exchange, by Beirut-based filmmaker Nigol Bezjian, captures that encounter as well as the sights and sounds of Rumi’s world, from whirling dervishes to the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia.

The lyrical 49-minute documentary can be viewed at: http://iwp.uiowa.edu/programs/international-conferences/the-same-gate alongside a 13-minute companion feature in which participants tackle the question “Who is your Rumi?” exploring how, eight centuries after his death, Rumi remains a central poet in Afghan, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Turkish literature and a bestselling poet in the U.S..

Karachi-based writer and journalist Bina Shah offers her views on Rumi during The Same Gate conference.

--Bina Shah (Writer/Journalist, Pakistan)

Bezjian recorded dozens of hours of interviews with participants, who included Pakistani writer and New York Times columnist Bina Shah and National Book Award winner Marilyn Hacker, capturing excursions retracing Rumi’s steps in Turkey, visiting the poet’s shrine in Konya, and even meeting with Esin Celebi Bayru, Rumi’s granddaughter twenty-one generations removed.

Esin Celebi Bayru, Rumi’s granddaughter twenty-one generations removed, offers her views on Rumi's legacy.

“Shot in English, Pashto and Persian, The Same Gate gives you a sense of how writers from different traditions engage with Rumi, and how varied their interpretations of his work are. You have scholars engaging with Rumi as a historical project and others for whom the connection is more visceral, like young Afghan journalist, writer, and human rights worker Farkhonda Arzooaby, who comes from Rumi’s home region of Balkh. You have people like Pakistani writer Bina Shah who make the case for Rumi as enlarging women’s place in Islam, and others with more traditionalist visions,” says 91^st Meridian Editor Nataša Durovicová who is compiling the 120-page volume of ghazals (a poetic form employed by Rumi), prose reflections, and essays by The Same Gate participants, to be published by Autumn Hill Books.

"If you want to write something like Rumi, you have to be no one," says Golan Haji.

--Golan Haji (Poet/Translator, Syria/France)

The Same Gate conference brought writers from six countries together to converse, collaborate, and challenge each other’s ideas, using Rumi’s poetry as common ground. The film and accompanying volume of collaborative work capture the rich intellectual and cultural exchange made possible by the project, embodying the Rumi ghazal that gave The Same Gate its name.