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Kilyos’s Cemetery of the Companionless, where Leila’s body is initially buried, symbolizes the systemic dehumanization of Turkey’s marginalized people. It is a place where the unwanted and unclaimed are laid to rest—those without family, identity, or significance, according to society’s narrow perspective. Leila’s burial here after her murder underscores how she has been continually denied dignity, even in death, because of her status as a sex worker.
Though some graves are marked by wooden planks bearing numbers, the cemetery lacks tombstones, names, and other individual markers. No funerals are held here, and it rarely receives visitors. This cemetery is the physical embodiment of a dehumanized existence: bodies are dumped into the earth and immediately forgotten, surrounded only by other nameless bodies. However, the decision of Leila’s friends to exhume her body and give her a proper funeral challenges the idea that those buried in this place are ever truly “companionless”—a label that reflects the narrow beliefs of those in charge, rather than objective facts about the people buried in the cemetery. Ironically, the souls in the Cemetery of the Companionless ultimately comprise their own community, eternally united in their shared experiences of being cast out and dehumanized.
The Cemetery of the Companionless Quotes in 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
The 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Cemetery of the Companionless. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 2, Chapter 1: The Morgue
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Clothing: a gold-sequinned dress (torn), high-heeled shoes, lace underwear. A clutch bag containing an ID card, a lipstick, a notebook, a fountain pen and house keys. No money, no jewellery (might have been stolen).
The time of death is estimated to be between 3:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. No sign of sexual intercourse detected. The victim was beaten with a heavy (blunt) instrument and strangled to death after being knocked unconscious.
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Part 2, Chapter 11: Karma
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“Look, maybe for believers like you the body is trivial . . . temporary. But not for me. And you know what? I’ve fought so hard for my body! For these”—she pointed to her breasts—“for my cheekbones . . .” She stopped. “Sorry if that sounds frivolous. [...] But I need you to see that the body matters too.”
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Part 2, Chapter 15: The Night
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[...] it seemed to Nalan that religion—and power and money and ideology and politics—acted like a hood too. All these superstitions and predictions and beliefs deprived human beings of sight, keeping them under control, but deep within weakening their self-esteem to such a point that they now feared anything, everything.
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Part 3, Chapter 2: The Blue Betta Fish
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“Nice to see you, finally,” said the fish. “What took you so long?”
[...]
Smiling at her confusion, the blue betta fish said, “Follow me.”
Now finding her voice, Leila said, with a shyness she could not conceal, “I don’t know how to swim. I never learned.”
“Don’t worry about that. You know everything you need to know.”
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The Cemetery of the Companionless Symbol Timeline in 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Cemetery of the Companionless appears in 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2, Chapter 1: The Morgue
...to the morgue, where a medical examiner examines and prepares it for burial in the Cemetery of the Companionless , where all unclaimed bodies wind up. Having worked in the morgue for many years,...
(full context)
Part 2, Chapter 2: The Five
...curtly orders them to leave. She says Leila’s body has already been taken to a cemetery, but she neglects to tell them which one, and Nalan loudly curses at her. As...
(full context)
Part 2, Chapter 11: Karma
Sitting around Leila’s table, Nostalgia Nalan declares that they should go to the Cemetery of the Companionless that very night and exhume Leila’s body. The others are initially shocked, but Nalan manages...
(full context)
...love will eventually be tested. One by one, they all agree to go to the cemetery—even Sabotage Sinan, despite his severe anxiety, and Jameelah, who’s sick and battling a lupus flare-up....
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Part 2, Chapter 13: The Doomed
In the Cemetery of the Companionless in Kilyos, a Greek fishing village an hour away from Istanbul, society’s “unwanted, unworthy, and...
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Part 2, Chapter 14: Visitors
...to their cores. As they exit the Chevy, they take in their eerie surroundings—the unkempt cemetery, the looming old fortress, the swells of waves upon the shore signaling the incoming storm....
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Part 2, Chapter 15: The Night
The cemetery is a dark, confusing place, some graves numbered and others unmarked altogether. Fearful, Sabotage Sinan...
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Part 2, Chapter 19: The Return
...wheeling Leila’s body in a wheelbarrow. Nostalgia Nalan spots a police car stationed near the cemetery gates, and the group abandons the wheelbarrow, Nalan carrying Leila herself to create less noise....
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