Jun 27

Yavuz Turgul completes filming of Hunting Season/Av Mevsimi

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Turgul was born in Istanbul, 1946. He worked as journalist for many years. In 1976 he started to write scripts with the support of Ertem Egilmez. His first directing experience came with the movie Fahriye Abla, in 1984. He worked with famous Turkish actor Sener Sen in so many movies. Turgul is one of the best directors in Turkey.

Film stills from “Av Mevsimi” (Hunting Season), one of the most eagerly anticipated Turkish movies of the upcoming season, have been released this week after director Yavuz Turgul wrapped filming of the movie.

Starring Şener Şen and Cem Yılmaz as two cops, the film also features veteran Çetin Tekindor in its glitzy cast. The film, which had a working title of “Av” (The Hunt), is planned for a December theatrical release.

resources: Today’s Zaman

Links

Yavuz Turguls Bio

(in Turkish) Eksi Sozluk

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Jun 14

Istanbul memories on focus of six filmmakers

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‘Do not forget me – Istanbul’ is a joint effort by six directors mainly from the Balkans and the Middle East who want to remind people that Istanbul is a city whose memories go beyond Turkey’s borders and whose history belongs to the people of those countries as well. The filmmaker hopes the film will vie for prestigious awards at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals

An up-and-coming film aims to remind new generations of the cultural influence that Istanbul has left in the collective memories of many nations.

It is the metropolis where West meets East, the city that has witnessed the rise and fall of empires, and the place where countless people from Anatolia, the Balkans and the Middle East have written their life stories. And it will be the theme of “Do not forget me – Istanbul.”

The film is a joint effort of six talented directors mainly from the Balkans and the Middle East – Bosnian Aida Begic, Serbian Stefan Arsenijevic, Greek Stergios Niziris, U.S.’s Eric Nazarian, Palestinian Omar Shargawi and Hany Abu-Assad. They want to remind people that Istanbul is a city whose memories exceed Turkey’s borders and whose history belongs to the peoples of these countries as well.

Hüseyin Karabey, the artistic director for the film, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that two years ago when he was participating in the Thessaloniki Film Festival he met well-known Greek screenplay writer Petros Markaris. They were talking about Istanbul, where Markaris was brought up, when Karabey discovered he was living in the same apartment Markaris used to, 40 years ago.

“Such a coincidence is unbelievable even in a film,” said Karabey, adding that it had been really moving to learn they had so much in common. “I immediately thought about my other friends and colleagues from the Balkans and the Middle East, whom stories about their old links with Istanbul I used to hear about frequently,” he said, adding that many people in the Balkans and Middle East have strong links with the city, although they might never have visited it in their lives.

Karabey said the directors would work in strong cooperation with young Turkish directors and actors and that their assistants will be young talented students. “It is not only a matter of just shooting the film,” he said, adding that the people involved would have the chance to gain a lot of experience and that through networking new projects may be developed in the future.

Karabey said he would best describe Istanbul with Makaris’ expression: “One can create a story about many cities, but Istanbul is a city that creates stories.”

Omar ShargawiOmar Shargawi, the director of the Golden Tiger-awarded “Go with peace Jamil” from Palestine, who was in Istanbul for a five-day workshop on the film with the other directors, told the Daily News he felt like it was the only time he had the chance to make a film and have fun at the same, adding that he experienced very romantic moments when he first came to the city.

Istanbul is one of the world’s monumental cities, according to Shargawi, who said the city was very special for him and his country of origin. “I do not feel I have any links with other big cities such as Rome, Paris or New York, but it is different with Istanbul,” he said, adding that there are two big cities with a big influence in the region: Istanbul and Cairo.

Shargawi, who was brought up in Denmark, said that in Europe, history had taught him that Turks were the enemy. “When I grew up, the picture turned around and I realized the opposite was true. After finishing his project in Istanbul, he plans to shoot a film in film in Cairo.

Aida BegicBosnian director Aida Begic, well known for the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize-awarded “Snow,” told the Daily News that making a film about Istanbul would be a big challenge for her as a director. “I find the concept marvelous and brave,” she said, adding that uniting well-known directors from different parts of world who have relations with the city was difficult but very successfully achieved by Karabey.

Begic said she felt both love and hate the first time she visited the city in 2003. “Istanbul is like a wild animal that is always running away from your arms,” she said, adding that although it was very chaotic, she fell in love with the city and that she was excited to express this still very passionate and wild love for Istanbul in the short film she will make. Begic also said Istanbul was literally between West and East, which makes it a great place where diversities meet. “We can explore ideas of universality and individuality in this city,” she said.

stergios-niziris

Stergios Niziris

Turkish filmmaking is like a diamond that is being revealed to the world, according to Begic. “The whole world is expecting Turkish cinema to explode,” she said, adding that it was experiencing an international opening that wanted to host international directors as well, of which she felt very honored.

As artistic director, Karabey said the cost for the film would reach 3 million Turkish Liras, of which 60 percent would be funded by the 2010 Istanbul European Capital of Culture agency and the rest by other foreign sponsors. Filming will start in July this year and the premiere is planned for the end of 2010.

“Do not forget me – Istanbul” will vie for prestigious awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Karabey said they talked to the festival organizers about the film and that even the fact of getting so many well-known directors together for this project seemed to be very exciting for them. He said they also intended to submit it to the Berlin Film Festival.

The stories

All of the short films will take place in Istanbul. Most of the actors will be Turkish, but the language of the main characters will be that of the country they represent. Here is the summary of some of the stories:

Amenak comes to Istanbul for the first time and feels like he has known the city for many years. As he searched for an old instrument shop among narrow streets in the city center, which his grandfather used to own a long time ago, he wonders what could have made his parents leave the city before he was born. The streets seem like extracts from his childhood memories, memories that have never existed … or have they?

Dragan and Ana take a long, tiring bus trip every weekend to sell cheap gadgets they carry in old suitcases in the urban jungle called Aksaray. One weekend they lose each other in the crowded streets, and while desperately looking for her husband, Ana encounters someone she lost many years ago: her son Marko who died in the war that tore the Balkans apart in the 1990s. Could that really be him?

Vangelis travels a lot between Istanbul and Thessaloniki for business, but feels like he is unwanted in Istanbul, which is why he prefers not to stay more than one day. Then one day his bag is stolen and he has to stay until he finds it. As he searches for the guy who hit him and ran away with his bag, he meets Zeynep and she helps him find his bag. But what else will he find in her?

Martha has come to Istanbul for the first time to meet her overseas boyfriend. She has to stay alone during the first day of her trip and gets anxious as she faces the city’s uncanny, poor neighborhoods. As her anxiety passes, she is hit by bad news: her boyfriend cannot come to Istanbul.

Resource: ERİSA DAUTAJ ŞENERDEM ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Links:

Tanınmış 6 yönetmen ‘İstanbul hikayelerini’ filme çekiyor

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Jun 02

Shades of grey in 1963 film

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TURKISH Cypriot director Dervish Zaim’s new film-in-the-making, Shadows and Shapes, is set to be his most controversial yet.

Set in 1963, the year in which the Cyprus Republic dissolved into ethnic violence, it follows the growing pains of Rusa, an adolescent girl from the Karpasia village of Komi Kebir.

But Istanbul-based Zaim says that ethnic conflict is only one of the film’s themes.
“It’s mainly a story about growing up,” Zaim told the Sunday Mail. “The conflict is in the background; it’s not the main theme”.

Nevertheless, the film’s promoters describe it as “a story that takes place as the events of 1963 unfold”, with Rusa and her shadow puppeteer father Veli separated as they flee their burning village. “The pain, the friendships, and the surrounding war casts a light on Cyprus’ story,” the promoters say.

Zaim says he set the film in 1963 “because in the almost 50 years that have passed since then, no one has made a film about that era”. “Those times are like a forgotten memory,” he says.

In his own community, however, the “Bloody Christmas of 1963” and its aftermath is anything but a forgotten memory. But as Zaim says, the film is not only, or even primarily about that.

“I believe it holds a universal message,” Zaim says. “It’s a message of peace, of growing together, of tolerance. In this sense it is not just a film about Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots.”

Naturally, Zaim cannot avoid the fact that he is making a film about a period of time that is remembered very differently by his community and Greek Cypriots. Nevertheless he insists that “as much as possible” he has “tried to stay faithful to historical events”.

Perhaps as a way of clarifying that he is not out to make a film about bad Greeks and oppressed Turks, the cast includes both Greek and Turkish Cypriot actors. Popi Avraam, among several other Greek Cypriot actors, plays a leading role as one of Rusa’s neighbours.

Zaim also insists he “tried to be as objective as possible” about what took place during the period covered by the film. “There are no blacks or whites. People are always grey. No one is purely good or bad,” Zaim says, adding that the characters in the film were “both fictitious and created from people I have met or heard about”.

Zaim adds Shadows and Shapes to a growing list of acclaimed low-budget films that includes Somersault in a Coffin, Waiting for Paradise, Dot and Mud. Zaim also worked with Panikos Chrysanthou in the making of the controversial but widely acclaimed Akamas, a film that, because of the sensitivity that surrounds it, still has not been shown on Cypriot TV either side of the Green Line. Zaim says he hopes to see Shadow and Shapes, which will be in Greek and Turkish, in cinemas next year.

Resource: Simon Bahceli Cyprus-Mail

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May 29

Pirselimoğlu’s ‘Pus’ a hazy picture of İstanbul’s outskirts

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Film director-screenwriter Tayfun Pir-selimoğlu’s “Pus” (Haze) is just so desperately glamorous in its depression and misery that despite my inclination to dismiss it as a piece of narrative lethargy with its calculatedly slow-paced 109 minutes, the film is a cinematic landmark in illustrating a kind of suffocating inertia brought partly by poverty and alienation.

Reşat (Ruhi Sarı) is a young man living in the outskirts of the city with his aging sick mother. The neighborhood they inhabit, where the entire film takes place, is literally an urban disaster. The atmosphere is very important here, as Pirselimoğlu and his crew transform location scouting into an art by the places they have chosen. You sometimes wonder how such ugliness can be shot so beautifully (cinematographer Erkan Özcan must be acknowledged). The apartments, the office buildings, the decrepit courtyards, the dark concrete spaces under viaducts, the bad roads… everything here steams off a feeling of desperation and darkness. Plus, it being the middle of a grey winter doesn’t help lift anyone’s spirits — neither the characters nor the viewers.

This is a tale of interior drama, reflected astutely by its exteriors. And it is by no means to be dismissed despite a certain difficulty in understanding the personal motives of its almost mute lead. Reşat is an incredibly expressionless man; his days with his mother at home rely on routine and a certain fed-upness shown only through uncomfortable silences. He works at a bootleg DVD print store planted in a squalid concrete office building that reminds one of a parking lot. He doesn’t talk much with his macho colleagues, either, many of them rather shady. Of course, they’re not aware of how the seemingly harmless Reşat will eventually find his own shady side.

Haze “PUS”

Turkey/Greece

A Zuzi Film (Turkey)/Graal (Greece) production. (International sales: Graal, Athens.) Produced by Veysel Ipek, Katerina Ikonomou, Irini Vouyouklaki, Tayfun Pirselimoglu. Executive producers, Ilknur Akanlar, Nikos Moustakas. Directed, written by Tayfun Pirselimoglu.

With: Ruhi Sari, Mehmet Avci, Nurcan Ulger, Bahar Yanilmaz, Birol Engler, Serkan Keski (Variety)

Camera (color, HD-to-35mm), Ercan Ozkan; editor, Erdinc Ozyurt; art director, Natali Yeres. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Forum), Feb. 17, 2010. Original title: Pus. Turkish dialogue. Running time: 108 MIN.

“Pus” is, in the end, Reşat’s story. Though it is all comprehensible that the general atmosphere of destitution that looms upon his life and his monosyllabic attitude is a vessel for his rebellious resentment, the film never allows the viewer to fully understand who Reşat really is or why he gets into muddy waters. He remains a mystery throughout the film while Pirselimoğlu and Sarı present a character whose face does not give into any decipherable expression. Reşat does not even blink, does not frown, does not twitch, does not smile. Even when he tries to communicate with the neighbor’s daughter whom he has a crush on, he is just vapid. He is never there.

Is he just a shadow of a human being, or is he just a complete nutcase? This extreme deadpan style can sometimes push the viewer away from the story. Of course, we cannot empathize with every screen character, but at least there should have been something about Reşat that could have further lured the audience into fully engaging in this drama.

Though the obscurity with the inner drama is maintained throughout, “Pus” remains a beautifully filmed picture that brings a realistic depiction of people that have been shunned from the city and left to “rot” inside and outside in the suburbs.

Pirselimoğlu’s unapologetically cutthroat and merciless vision of lower-income lethargy might frustrate the nerves of a softer audience, but it still remains truthful in showing a side of the city that exists and should not be avoided: impoverished, wretched and not so happy.

Resource: Today’s Zaman: EMİNE YILDIRIM İSTANBUL 29 May 2010, Saturday

Links:

Tayfun Pirselimoglu’s IMDB

Haze: Review by Derek ELLEY Variety

Bir Pirselimoğlu Evreni Sevin Okyay

ACIMASIZ VE TEKİNSİZ HAYATLAR Cuneyt Cebenoyan

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May 22

Two films show rise of immigrant Turks in cinema

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Turkish immigrants in Europe take center stage in two films from non-Turkish directors currently playing in theaters. Here’s a look at how the depictions of the lives of Turks people in Europe have changed in cinema over the last three decades

What do two movies, one directed by an Austrian and the other by a Dutchman, playing in theaters right now have in common?

Both “Die Fremde” (When We Leave) and “Takiye: Allah’ın Yolunda” (In the Name of God) feature Turkish characters in their leads. Both films tell the stories of Turkish immigrants living in Europe and of characters who feel stuck between two cultures, two countries and between tradition and modernity.

“Die Fremde” stars Sibel Kekilli, the poster girl for Turkish immigrants in cinema, in an award-winning performance.

Director Feo Aladağ’s debut feature tells the story of Umay, a Turkish woman whose family lives in Germany. The film begins as she ends her marriage, running away from her thuggish husband with her son back to her family in Berlin. She finds out that it doesn’t really matter whether she’s in Turkey or Germany – as long as she’s a single mother, traditions work the same for a Turkish woman, even if she’s right in the middle of a culture with gender equality.

Director Ben Verlong’s “Takiye: Allah’ın Yolunda” is a genre-bending movie, a thriller that looks deep into the problems faced by Muslims in Europe in the last decade.

The joint Dutch-Turkish production delves into a recurring problem for Turkish people living in Europe: the investment scams that put people’s life savings into jeopardy, and the disappearance of investors with the huge sums of cash.

The film stars Erhan Emre as a man who entrusts his money to an Islamic investment, convincing those around him to do the same. In the end, of course, he is left empty-handed after the company goes bankrupt with the executives nowhere in sight.

From cardboard to realistic characters

The arrival of Turkish immigrants into Germany half a century ago (and later other Western European countries) marked the beginning of a cultural clash that has continued for decades.

Refusing to integrate into the cultures they had now become parts of, Turkish immigrants have generated scorn in the host countries over the years. When German immigrant cinema emerged in the 1970s and later blossomed in 1980s, harsh working conditions became a major theme. The characters, however, were largely cardboard and stereotyping became the norm as far as the development of Turkish roles.

Director Tevfik Başer’s “40 Metrekare Almanya” (40 Square Meters of Germany) of 1986 was a first in Turkish cinema when he provided a very realistic glimpse into the lives of Turkish immigrants in Germany.

The film put a female character in its center, the newly-wed Turna (Özay Fecht), who is taken from her village in Turkey to Germany to be locked in a small apartment everyday while her husband goes to work. The film was actually a harbinger of the things to come in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Turkish and German filmmaker Fatih Akın has been a revered name among European cinephiles since the late 1990s with hits like “Im Juli” (In July) and “Solino.”

His Golden Bear-winning “Gegen die Wand” (Head-On), however, would become the benchmark for the depiction of Turkish people living in Germany. Akın not only became the voice of third-generation Turks in Germany with his modern classics like “Gegen die Wand” and “Auf der anderen Seite” (The Edge of Heaven), but he single-handedly maneuvered German cinema to include young Turkish directors and freed Turkish characters from being given stereotypical roles.

“Gegen die Wand” was a heartbreaking love story of two people living in cultural purgatory, between tradition and modernity, Turkey and Germany, survival and death.

Drawing from his long past as a migrant in Germany, Akın recreated the world of three generations of Turkish migrants in Germany. His genre-defining cinema gave these misfits a voice and an existence in pop culture, which at the end of the decade would open the way for young Turkish directors like Özgür Yıldırım to have their distinct voices in cinema.

Clash of civilizations on film

Young director Özgür Yıldırım’s “Chiko” of 2008 told the story of the street-smart Turkish boy İsa, known to many as Chiko, and his bumpy ride in the underground world of drugs. The film featured the self-made macho world of young Turkish boys in Germany, boys who become men with violence, drugs, and gang life. Stuck in a world of antiquated traditions and the burden of modern life, the macho underground life was shown to be these third-generation young Turks’ only ticket to self-respect.

Newcomer İnan Temelkuran’s debut feature “Made in Europe” took a glimpse into the cultural clash between Turks and Europe more broadly. Taking place in a single night, in three different metropolises in Europe, Madrid, Paris and Berlin, the film was more like three short films or a feature with three parts.

“Made in Europe” portrayed a group of characters (mostly men) in each city, talking as they do with one another, focusing on the sad stories of these men through sharp, realistic and surprisingly shocking dialogue. The film brought a totally fresh perspective to the lives of Turkish immigrants in Europe. Not only for the Turkish audience, the movie was a strong critique of all those celebrating cultural diversity in a Europe under the shadow of the supposed clash of civilizations.

Other directors who have forged into the slippery territory of Turks and Germans are Thomas Arslan, whose “Der schöne Tag” (A Fine Day) told the story of the struggle of a young Turkish woman (Serpil Turhan) to become an actress; Adnan Köse, who skillfully puts German and Turkish people next to one another in his films; and Buket Alakuş, whose most famous picture, “Anam” (My Mother), featured a hapless Turkish housewife and mother in Germany.

Resources: EMRAH GÜLER Hurriyet Daily NewsFriday, May 21, 2010

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Apr 21

Demirkubuz’s ‘Envy’ Thou shalt not commit adultery

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Writer-director Zeki Demirkubuz holds one of the most unique places in Turkish cinema; he seems to simultaneously gather contempt and admiration from critics and audiences for his obstinate, unapologetic and self-exultant style of dealing with human misery, treachery, submission to blind fate and the dynamics of basic patriarchal society and of exerting emotional power.

Demirkubuz’s cinematic prowess reaches its heights especially in films such as “Masumiyet” (Innocence, 1992) and the more recent “Kader” (Fate, 2006).

This time, diverting from his usual illustration of contemporary society, he takes a plunge in directing a period piece, “Kıskanmak” (Envy), based on Nahid Sırrı Örik’s 1946 novel of the same title.

It is the 1930s; Zonguldak, a mining town in the western Black Sea region, is the setting. The newly founded Turkish Republic is in its infancy, and pride mixed with detachment overcomes the facial expressions of the guests of a Republic Day ball as they sing the national anthem. About 30 seconds pass, and we cut to the same guests dancing a waltz — perhaps an allusion to manifestations of the perception of the modern republic during the time. We are immediately introduced to our main characters: Halit (Serhat Tutumluer), the İstanbulite engineer newly appointed to the mining company in the town, Mükerrem (Berrak Tuzunatac), his beautiful and much younger socialite wife, and last but not least, Seniha (Nergis Öztürk), Halit’s incredibly ugly sister who is the appendage of their marriage and takes shelter in her brother’s house.

Everybody seems happy with the family arrangement, or at least that is what we can assume by the pleasantries exchanged and the air of acceptance. Halit works like a dog to feed the family and remains mostly silent during dinner. He treats his wife with adoration but nonetheless indifference. Seniha, despite her brother’s discontentment with her, keeps the household running and prefers the life of a recluse. And Mükerrem, with the air of a child, knows exactly how to toss her pretty head around and seems mostly concerned with the nostalgia of her previously bubbly life in İstanbul. The key here is the relationship between Seniha and Mükerrem; one would think that given the circumstances of aesthetics and Seniha’s immediate presence in the marriage, the two would openly maltreat each other; however, a sisterly bond does exist between them that surpasses formality. Or so we would think — until a new element is added to the equation.

When Nüzhet, the handsomely pretty and good-for-nothing son of the richest family in town, sets his eyes on Mükerrem, the dynamics are forever changed. Mükerrem is at first disgusted with Nüzhet’s overt sexual innuendo, but it isn’t long before she yields to her lust and thus they embark on an affair. Perhaps it gives her something to do in this godforsaken town as the beautiful misery of her drama carries her away.
While Halit remains clueless, Seniha is aware of everything, and the question remains for a long time why she conceals her sister-in-law’s adultery from her brother. Is it because of her understanding or maybe is she just waiting for the right time to unleash hell?

As Seniha, Öztürk’s performance is exhilarating, and her recent best actress award at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival is surely deserved. She portrays through her body language, facial twitches and subtly stingy intonations the disposition of a woman who sees herself confined by a destiny that she is not in control of — after all, if beauty is God given, so is ugliness. When Seniha finally reveals Mükerrem’s “un-virtuousness” to her brother, Öztürk delivers her performance with incomparable grace. We reflect whether this really is Seniha’s personal revenge against Mükerrem or something far deeper — maybe her brother or just life itself. Of course, even she has no idea what the consequences will be and how cruelly her “destiny” will change.


“Envy” differs in many ways from Demirkubuz’s previous works. It is much more restrained and claustrophobic, which in its own way transforms the film into a continuous rollercoaster of emotional tension and suspense without ever revealing anything more than it should.
The intense dialogue sequences are the best that have come out of Turkish cinema in recent years and the eerie atmosphere created through cinematography and art direction lures the audience into the twisted, familiar and timeless universe of the human psyche. “Envy” would have still been as powerful if it took place in contemporary society — for sometimes one ponders if there really are any emotions as powerful as envy, lust and contempt…

resource: EMİNE YILDIRIM  Today’s Zaman

Official Website: Zeki Demirkubuz

Zeki’s IMDB

The Autuers

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Apr 20

Tribeca ‘10 | “Loose Cannons” Director Ferzan Ozpetek Keeps It All About the Family

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Tribeca director Ferzan Ozpetek’s “Loose Cannons,” screening in the World Narrative Feature Competition, is a playful take on family obligation and the possibility of being uprooted from comfortable surroundings.

Tommaso (Riccardo Scamarcio, “Eden Is West”) has a comfortable life in Rome as an aspiring writer and a steady relationship with his boyfriend Marco – a life he has kept secret from his family. So when he’s called back to his hometown of Lecce in Italy’s deep south to help run the family pasta business, he decides to finally reveal his homosexuality to his conservative family and hopefully get out of his business obligations in the process. But when his plans are thwarted by his brother, Tommaso gets stuck on the path that he was desperately trying to avoid.

Director Ferzan Ozpetek (“Facing Windows,” “A Perfect Day”) takes a playful approach to this family dramedy, matching a critique of provincial Southern values with an eccentric cast of characters that includes a philandering conservative father, a boozing aunt, a pair of disgruntled maids, and Tommaso’s bubbly friends. As each family member’s quirks slowly come to the surface, Ozpetek’s heartfelt film reveals that Tommaso isn’t the only one struggling to navigate between la bella figura (a good public image) and his true desires. [Synopsis courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival]

“Loose Cannons”
World Narrative Feature Competition
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Primary Cast: Riccardo Scamarcio, Nicole Grimaudo, Alessandro Preziosi, Ennio Fantastichini, Lunetta Savino, Elena Sofia Ricci
Screenwriter: Ferzan Ozpetek, Ivan Cotroneo
Producer: Domenico Procacci
Editor: Patrizio Marone
Director of Photography: Maurizio Calvesi
Production Designer: Andrea Crisanti
Composer: Pasquale Catalano
110 min., Italy
….

Director Ferzan Ozpetek on learning the filmmaking ropes in Italy and his inspiration on “Loose Cannons”…

This is one interview in a series profiling directors whose films are screening at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

I was born in Istanbul in Turkey but was drawn to Italy to study because of its rich cinematic tradition. I moved to Rome to study film in 1976 and had the great fortune to work as assistant director with many great filmmakers. I was fortunate that my first film “Hamam: The Turkish Bath” was shown at Cannes and became quite successful internationally, which allowed me to realize my other films, eight features so far.

A lot of my work deals with different angles on the concept of family, both the biological one you are born into and the one you build for yourself as you grow up. “Loose Cannons” began with an idea about something that actually happened to a friend of mine. It started off with a confession-revelation between two brothers, an event which almost destroyed my friend. “Loose Cannons” is a very personal film. I have dedicated it to my father who passed away some years ago, perhaps because after turning 51, I felt some kind of need to look back, to re-evaluate my relationship with my own parents and family that shares some aspects with the story I tell.


Ozpetek on how important location was to him in shooting his film…

Eight years ago I visited Lecce in Apulia for the first time and simply fell in love with it. There is a marvelous atmosphere in Lecce with the beauty of its architecture, the surrounding landscape and the excellent food, all of which chimed with the story. It is very rich in traditions, just like the family in the story, and the setting became almost an additional character.

Before starting the shoot, I wrote the screenplay with Ivan Cotroneo, who came to the set while I was filming in Apulia, and together we changed some dialogue and scenes according to the mood on the set. There were various modifications and rewrites as well as a fair amount of improvisation. I was lucky to have such a stellar cast of actors who I could sometimes tell to run with their scenes, and some of the funniest scenes are theirs as much as mine or Ivan’s.

And on what he hopes a U.S. audience will take away from the picture…

Most of my films were released in the U.S., and New York especially has always been very hospitable to my work. I hope the same holds for “Loose Cannons.” There is a specific Mediterranean atmosphere about the film that I hope the Tribeca audience will relate to. At the same time, its story is universal – everybody has a family, and everybody has to realize who they are in this context, positively, negatively, or ambiguously. And I hope people will laugh because even though it deals with serious issues, the film is about life’s absurdities, too. It is a true comedy of manners.

Ozpetek on his filmmaking sensibilities…

At the end of the first showing of the film, some people asked me whether it was modeled directly on classic Italian comedies such as those by Monicelli, Germi or Petri. For me it is naturally a great honor to be associated with these filmmakers. They are obviously filmmakers that have influenced me and my work and elements that are a part of my life. I grew up professionally with their works and the works of others in Italian cinema. So I am very proud to be mentioned alongside them even though any similarities are unintentional; I am not conscious of them when I am filming, just as I do not imitate the Turkish comedies I watched as a child. But these films are certainly a background that shaped my sensibilities.

And on what’s in store for the future…

I am still focussed on promoting the film. There are many projects I am looking into, but I haven’t really decided yet what will be next.

resource: indieWIRE

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Apr 18

‘Selvi Boylum’ highlights need to restore other Turkish classics

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Back in the glory days of Yeşilçam (Turkish movie industry called Yesilcam), filmmakers would immediately start their next project after completing production on a movie.

Several copies of the film would then be produced to be shown in theaters. Filmmakers themselves were not concerned with building an archive. The films of the era, whose numbers would reach hundreds per year, would just be left to decay in one corner after completing their theatrical runs, hence the poor quality often observed in old Yeşilçam movies shown on TV.
The only way to fix visual and audio problems in old movies is to restore them, which is to reproduce films using advanced technology. “Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım” (The Girl with the Red Scarf), late filmmaker Atıf Yılmaz’s 1978 classic, was the latest in a line of films restored as part of an initiative by the İstanbul Film Festival. Restored in a joint effort with the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the insurance company Groupama and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage, the film is now preparing to enjoy a theatrical run and a trip to overseas festivals.

Adapted for the big screen by Ali Özgentürk from Kyrgyz author Chingiz Aitmatov’s novel, the film follows the love story between a truck driver named İlyas, played by a young Kadir İnanır, and village girl Asya, played by the beautiful Türkan Şoray, both among the most popular names of Yeşilçam.

Professionally remastered, “Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım” managed to once again impress festivalgoers and critics some 33 years after its first release. The film’s restoration, which took six months, cost 80,000 euros, 25,000 euros of which was funded by the Culture Ministry.

However, the restoration was not without flaws. Cemal Okan, the owner of the İstanbul-based Fono Film, one of the two studios that worked on the restoration, along with Vipsaş, says they encountered a number of problems during the film’s festival screening. “Everyone loved the film’s restored version. However, there were some problems in a number of scenes. The voices were not clear. We will repair the film once again before it goes abroad for film festivals,” Okan told Sunday’s Zaman.

One film each year

The Paris-based Groupama Gan Foundation has to date helped preserve around 30 movies from various countries around the world. The foundation’s Turkish subsidiary, which partnered with the International İstanbul Film Festival in restoring “Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım” as part of the festival’s “Turkish Classics Revisited” program, says it is planning to restore one Turkish movie each year. The foundation places one copy of each film they restore in the film archive at İstanbul’s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts.

Gilles Duval, the general delegate of the foundation, says the group wants to fully acquire the rights of the films they restore. However, he complains that filmmakers usually demand high rates for their movies.

The Culture Ministry’s Copyrights and Cinema Director General Abdurrahman Çelik, on the other hand, points to the fact that restoring a film is a very expensive process. Still, Çelik gives Turkish cinephiles the happy news that the ministry will provide funds for the restoration of 10 Turkish movies annually. “We have a serious problem with financing [restoration projects]. In case we find corporate sponsors, we will be able to restore more movies. There are thousands of Turkish movies awaiting restoration,” Çelik adds.

Next in line: films by Metin Erksan

Sevmek Zamani

The Culture and Tourism Ministry currently plans to restore films by Metin Erksan, the screenwriter-filmmaker who directed some 42 films, most notably “Susuz Yaz” (Dry Summer) and “Yılanların Öcü” (Revenge of the Snakes). The ministry is first planning to restore at least two films by Erksan. The ministry’s move also earned support from Turkish film critics. Nevertheless, critics say they expect more movies to be preserved with the ministry’s initiative. Sabah daily film critic Atilla Dorsay, noting that thousands of movies have been left to decay, says the problem needs a more serious approach. “This problem cannot be solved by restoring one or two films every year. With this method, restoring all films would take 150 years. A new solution should be found, and 30 to 40 films should be restored annually.”

resource Sunday’s Zaman AYHAN HÜLAGÜ

Links

Atif Yilmaz’s filmography

Metin Erksan’s IMDB

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Apr 17

‘Min Dit’ director Miraz Bezar wants to restrain violence with his film

By LTFF News No Comments »

“Min Dît/Ben Gördüm” (The Children of Diyarbakır), the first film from Turkey to feature the Kurdish language, made its debut last Friday.

After its limited release last week, the film will start to roll into theaters in Germany on April 22 and in other cities in Turkey on April 30. The film came to public prominence when it won the jury’s special prize at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in October 2009. Later, the film also brought Şenay Orak, one of its young leads, a jury’s special prize at Nuremberg’s Turkish-German Film Festival.

Although the film’s release came at a time when the long-standing Kurdish issue was being debated in Turkey under the government’s democratic initiative, young director Miraz Bezar actually conceived of and shot “Min Dît” long before the initiative was introduced.

The film tells the story of the survival of three children after witnessing the murder of their parents, thereby looking at the controversial JİTEM issue through the eyes of kids. The performances of Orak and Muhammed Al in the film were highly acclaimed despite the fact that they had no previous acting experience, and this is perhaps attributable to the fact that they are children living in Diyarbakır who suffered experiences similar to the characters in the film.

Amid the debates concerning a bill that is intended to address the children who were victimized by the Counterterrorism Law (TMK), aka the “stone-throwing children,” about whom many NGOs and celebrities are particularly sensitive, what Orak and Al tell us is important as it shows us how this issue is seen by children. For Al (who plays the role of Fırat) and Orak (who plays Gülistan), real life coincides with the story told in the film. Perhaps, when we look at the stone-throwing children, we should realize that they are all just kids in the end.

Director Bezar and the film’s child actors spoke to Sunday’s Zaman about “Min Dît”:

You shot the first Kurdish film in Turkey, and you discussed a political issue. Have you ever feared that there would be much criticism?

If I had set out solely with business or career concerns like some of my colleagues, I would have tried to secure a place in the market by shooting different films. But there are some issues that impress me from the perspective of a filmmaker. This film was made possible with my unhesitating and uncensored approach to the Kurdish issue. For this reason, the film had to be in Kurdish. This is because the language spoken where it was filmed is Kurdish. Today, this film can be screened with subtitles like an American movie. If a film in the Kurdish language can take part in national competition in Antalya, this means that we have done the right thing. This move also paves the way for young filmmakers from Diyarbakır to have a future in the sector. Now, Kurdish families in Iran want their children to become filmmakers, not physicians or engineers because cinema is a big opportunity for Kurds to express themselves to the outside world.

An outsider view can be felt in films made about Turkey by Turks who live in foreign countries. What is your film’s view?

I went to a school in Turkey until I was 9 years old. When I went to Germany, I was completely upset as a child. I tried to learn Kurdish there because it was forbidden in Turkey. It was very difficult to lead an immigrant life after the 1970s and the eras of coups in Turkey. But you come from a political Kurdish family, and you are not distant from the problems experienced in Turkey. For instance, how many years passed before JİTEM started to be discussed? For me, JİTEM was an issue in 1995 or 1996. Actually, Turkey should have touched on this issue after the Susurluk accident, but this was not done. Moreover, I lived for two years in Diyarbakır before starting on the film. If I had lived in Germany as they made this film, it would completely be an outsider’s view. Then, I had to move and go for the things other than those we know or learn from papers.

Why is the film named “Min Dît” (which can be roughly translated into English as “I’ve witnessed”)?

This film was a Kurd’s, i.e., my, sorrowful look. Generations come and go, but this issue cannot be solved, and it is inherited. The main message of the film is to question what we leave to future generations. However, I have invested five years in this film, and I am amazed to see that some suggest that I do this for the sake of propaganda. Which conscientious person can accept the fact that 3,000 children are in jail today? But in Turkey, unfortunately, politicians do not make the same comments about Palestinian kids as they would about the stone-throwing children. “Those who throw stones today will come up with weapons tomorrow,” they say. Then, they should not let them throw stones. You cannot change their world by just putting them in jail. Rather, this is something like saying, “I will hit you on your head until you learn your lesson.” What you should actually do is to embrace and rehabilitate them. Otherwise, those children will feel they are alone. Ninety percent of the Kurdish children in Diyarbakır experience this. In this way, we create a mass of people who can express themselves only via violence.

Why have you chosen to discuss a political issue from the perspective of children?

Miraz Beraz

I thought that if I tell the story through the eyes of children, the people who live in western Turkey and who know nothing about these incidents can establish empathy in an easier manner. We live in this country together. But in this country, some people who are paid salaries from the taxes we pay were able to kill people on our behalf. And they had not been called to account for these actions. Frankly, I believe that everyone in Turkey is victimized, not only the Kurds. The multicultural way of living I experienced in Kreutzberg, Berlin, could also be experienced in this country, but somehow, it was denied to the people. Certain ideologies, dogmas and fears were produced. Hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent on this war represent the sums that were not spent on schools, science or the country’s development. Then, we should ask why this war was fought in the first place. Those who make certain decisions on our behalf, those who say that we are all sisters and brothers but produce policies that do not contain fraternity, those who implement them should be questioned today. I portray JİTEM and the unresolved murders in my film so that these wounds can be tended and these people can express their victimization and eventually recover from this trauma. I hope that one day we will be able to talk about the trauma this way caused to the soldiers. Indeed, we, as conscious people, have to address these issues.

In the film, the mother communicates with her children through a fairy tale. Does this fairy tale have a special meaning?

Overall, the film makes references to Hansel and Gretel. Indeed, the basic theme of this tale is that these children were left alone in the woods, or our big world. As for the fairy tale of “Zilli Kurt,” we see that violence breeds violence. This applies to the act of throwing stones. But, I, as a director, want to present something to contain violence and prevent its continuation. In this tale, the villagers did not kill a wolf which has been causing them trouble, but they put a bell around his neck. This means that it is possible to develop an alternative method for addressing violence.

About the characters in the film, critics say that Kurds are categorically good and Turks are categorically bad.

Turkey is experiencing a first. When a person speaks Turkish in a film in the Kurdish language, this does not mean that he is a Turk. I talk to you in Turkish, but I am a Kurd. We see things in the way we like to see.

Roles in the film parallel real life

Muhammed Al: In the film, I play the role of a child whose parents were killed as they were going to a wedding ceremony. Then, I start to work in the streets and develop bad habits. Like what Fırat experienced in the film, my family was badly affected by the conflicts in the region. Our village was burned down. When we were left alone, we had to move to the city. We went through difficult times and survived. I worked as a street vendor. My role in the film is parallel to how I live in real life. Children in Diyarbakır, in the region, face very harsh conditions. For a more peaceful environment, adults should create a better world for children. To this end, the police should not apply violence to children. This is later translated into hatred and to stones. Children are detained, and this time, their lives become much more unbearable.

Şenay Orak: I play the role of Gülistan, the elder sister of Fırat, in the film. Our parents are killed. Our lives are ruined. We are left on the streets. This should not be done, but we are forced to do so in order to survive, as it happens in real life. The reason why children are involved in crimes in the region is that people are deprived of their rights. If people are given their rights, no one will do bad things. The state should grant the people what they want. Those who throw stones in the streets should be seen for what they are. They are kids and cannot think in a sound manner. They do not know what is what and what they are doing. Prison sentences drag children into another stalemate. The reason for throwing stones should be examined and a solution must be found.

resource Sunday’s Zaman

A Bezar Film, Corazon Intl. production. (Int. sales: the Match Factory, Cologne.)
Produced by Miraz Bezar. Co-producers, Klaus Maeck, Fatih Akin.
Directed, written, edited by Miraz Bezar.
With: Senay Orak, Muhammed Al, Hakan Karsak, Suzan Ilir, Berivan Ayaz, Fahriye Celik, Alisan Onlu, Berivan Eminoglu, Mehmet Inci, Cekdar Korkusuz, Recep Ozer.
Sept. 22, 2009. Running time: 101 MIN.

Links

Mirat Bezar’s IMDB

Reviewed at San Sebastian  By JAY WEISSBERG

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Apr 17

Golden Bear winner ‘Honey’ concludes Turkish director’s trilogy

By LTFF Festivals, Films and Directors No Comments »

Following the award-winning ‘Yumurta’ (Egg) and ‘Süt’ (Milk), Kaplanoğlu’s cinematic shopping list concludes with ‘Bal’ (Honey). The Golden Bear winner in the recent Berlin Film Festival is the final film in Yusuf’s trilogy. First in chronological order, ‘Bal’ takes us to Yusuf’s childhood and his traumatic relationship with his father

Semih Kaplanoğlu has been easing his way into Turkey’s popular consciousness over the last decade. He’s now become a revered name, the proud winner of the Golden Bear at the recent Berlin International Film Festival. His first two feature films, “Herkes Kendi Evinde” (Away from Home) of 2001 and second film “Meleğin Düşüşü” (Angel’s Fall) of 2005 had won him various awards here and abroad.

However, it was his last three films, making Yusuf’s trilogy, that put him on the radar for many movie buffs in Turkey. The bizarre name of the first one, “Yumurta” (Egg), raised our interest. Then, we learned that the subsequent two films in the trilogy would make up a shopping list, “Süt” (Milk) and “Bal” (Honey).

Yusuf is the protagonist in all three films, and the trilogy plays backward. The films tell the story of a young man, a teenager, and a little boy respectively. The final film, the Golden Bear winner, “Bal” is in theaters now. And having watched the three films, we realize that the stories don’t necessarily belong to the same person, even though they share their first names.

It all began with an ‘Egg’

“Yumurta,” the top contender at the 2007 Golden Orange festival, sweeping six awards including Best Film and Screenplay, was about a young man lost in a big city. In the movie, the popular heartthrob Nejat İşler plays Yusuf, a poet and owner of a secondhand bookstore in Istanbul. He goes back to his small hometown upon his mother’s death. The journey triggers his sense of isolation, not belonging neither to his hometown nor his newfound home in Istanbul. Yusuf realizes that the place where he grew up is both a source of alienation and a source of peace for him.

“Süt” similarly featured a young man’s struggle to find his place in the changing face of rural and urban lives and traditional roles of masculinity. Melih Selçuk played a younger Yusuf in the movie, which was more of a coming-of-age story, telling the story of how Yusuf parts from his town and his mother. Yusuf’s problematic relationship with his mother had a heightened effect with Başak Köklükaya’s haunting performance as the mother and a more confident Kaplanoğlu behind the camera. The film won the FIPRESCI prize in last year’s Istanbul International Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Lion in Venice.

“Bal” takes us to Yusuf’s childhood. Interestingly, the film doesn’t necessarily play as a prequel to the first two films. Kaplanoğlu plays with time, and places the story in contemporary Turkey. The sense of time and place is deliberately distorted as dream sequences converge with reality in Little Yusuf’s story.

“Süt” had focused on the complicated relationship between a child and his mother. “Bal” is the story of a child and his father. When Yusuf begins school, he goes through a trauma of being introduced to a whole new system for the first time. He refuses to talk, dreams becoming his only way to communicate, especially with his father. Here, we get to see how the seeds of Yusuf’s dysfunctional relationship with women and his mother in the previous films were planted.

A difficult journey for Yusuf and the audience

Kaplanoğlu said he didn’t want to make a surreal film and doesn’t like his films to be interpreted through symbolism. Unfortunately for him, the film with minimal dialogue is abundant with symbols and metaphors. Even the titles “Egg” and “Milk” are enough to open discussions on symbolism. On another note on symbolism, Yusuf’s father’s name is Yakup. That’s Joseph and Jacob in Turkish. Biblical Jospeh was Jacob’s son and he was blessed with interpreting dreams. The references might not be on a grand scale but they’re still there.

Like the previous two films in the trilogy, “Bal” is a simple, minimalist and touching film, reminiscent of European masters like Bergman and Bresson. In all of the films, it’s never an easy journey for Yusuf and neither for the audience. And in “Bal,” there’s too much on the shoulders of the 7-year-old actor Bora Altaş, but he proves to be one of the best newcomers this year.

Similar to his protagonist Yusuf, director and writer Semih Kaplanoğlu moved to Istanbul in his early 20s. Having studied cinema and television in İzmir, he later worked in renowned advertising agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi and Young & Rubicam as a copywriter. He became an assistant cameraman for two award-winning documentaries, and later wrote and directed various episodes of the popular TV series, “Şehnaz Tango” in the 90s.

Kaplanoğlu wrote articles on cinema and plastic arts for nearly two decades, and had a column in the daily Radikal between 1996 and 2000. After the national and international success of his two feature films, “Herkes Kendi Evinde” and “Meleğin Düşüşü,” Kaplanoğlu founded his own film production company, Kaplan Films. “Yumurta” was the first feature film for Kaplan Films. As is the custom with most Turkish directors, he writes, directs, produces, and at times, edits his films.

resource

16 April 2010 ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

EMRAH GÜLER

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