Directed by Suha Arın in 1979, Tahtacı Fatma is one of the earliest documentaries on the ethnic Tahtacı community. In an interview conducted in 1999, Suha Arın mentions that he wished to make a follow-up film that includes updated information about their conditions as he had not been in touch since several years. However, Arın passed away in 2004 without realizing his wish. Why was Arın curious again about a community whom he already worked with twenty years earlier? The 40 Years After Fatma observes the changes which Tahtacıs went through, with the company of documentarists who worked with Suha Arın back in 1979, at their native land.

Rıza and Sabit, who work in the funeral services of a rural municipality, set out for the burial of an unknown funeral. Encountering many setbacks along the way, Rıza and Sabit bring the body to the graveyard of the orphans at the end of the day.