The Childminders

Educated women from the former Soviet republics work as nannies in Turkey to support their families back home.




Tens of thousands of women from republics like Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova often leave their husbands and, significantly, their children and travel to Turkey's big cities - Istanbul and Ankara - in search of work as nannies and domestic staff. Many work illegally but still earn much more than what they would as teachers or even dentists in their native countries. They do this to send the money back home to their families.

One of these women is "Ayse", who comes from a Central Asian country and works illegally as a nanny in Istanbul. She doesn't want her identity or her country to be revealed and we never see her face throughout the film.

Ayse went to university and for 11 years worked as a schoolteacher - earning about $200 a month - before quitting her job and moving to Turkey to try and earn more money for her family and pay off a mortgage.