Under Production | Kabadayi by Omer Vargi

Young and veteran Turkish actors on the set of new film ‘Kabadayı’
Screenwriter Yavuz Turgul and actor Şener Şen are often asked “Don’t the two of you ever separate?” Both say they’d like to work on different projects, but for various reasons they always end up working together.

But the new movie “Kabadayı” (bully) will mark a change in direction in the “director Yavuz Turgul-actor Şener Şen” combo. Although Turgul wrote the screenplay, the movie will be directed by Ömer Vargı. Actors Ruhi Sarı and Kenan İmirzalıoğlu will also star in the movie.

A press conference was held at İstanbul’s Sürmeli Hotel this week to introduce the movie. Şen will take on the role of a former bully named Ali Osman. When one day Osman encounters his first love, Afet (Selma Kutlu), and learns that she has a son named Murat (İsmail Hacıoğlu), Osman’s life takes a twist. Devran (İmirzalıoğlu), a mafia boss, is in love with Murat’s girlfriend, Karaca (Aslı Tandoğan), and is willing to do anything to get her. Osman, on the other hand, is willing to do anything to keep his son and his girlfriend safe and happy. We’ll see how just far Osman has to go when the movie plays in theaters in December.

The movie will be shot in 30 different locations in İstanbul, from Halkalı to Beykoz. Each actor and actress said they fell in love with the script as soon as they read it. Speaking of part of the film, Şen says, “It is a scene that has all of Yavuz Turgul’s qualities,” while Sarı notes, “There are some screenplays where you can take out a few parts and nothing will change. Those types of screenplays are no good. But with this one, even if you take out just one sentence it changes everything. This shows the screenplay is very good. It doesn’t include a single line that is useless. You are going to watch a wonderful film.”

Referring to the similarity between the title of the upcoming film and Turgul’s former popular movie, “Eşkıya” (bandit), Sarı hinted that the movies have nothing in common.

Like the movie, which brings two brave men from different periods together, the set of the movie has brought the old and new stars together. With Şen on the top of the list, the oldies include Rana Cabbar, Süleyman Turan, Ferdi Akarnur, Dursun Ali Sarıoğlu and Ayberk Atilla.

İmirzalıoğlu and Sarı take their place on the list of younger stars. The young actors say they are excited to have the opportunity to work with veterans of Turkish cinema. “We have a lot to learn from them,” they say, while the older generation compliments the performance of the younger ones.

Director Vargı says it’s no easy task working with these names. “My feet are shaking because I am so nervous,” Vargı says and explains why he is directing Turgul’s screenplay. “Yavuz and I are old friends. He told me about this story before and I really liked it. He said, ‘I’ll write it for you if you are willing to film it’. So Yavuz didn’t write this movie for himself, he wrote it for me. If I do a good job of directing it is going to be a great film.”

Violence is not on the screen, but within society

The name of the movie means bully and Şen’s opponent is İmirzalıoğlu -- who we’re used to seeing in TV and movie productions as a tough and angry man -- raising questions over violence in the movie. “There isn’t a lot of violence,” Vargı says, adding: “Violence is not present within the public because there is violence in movies. If there is violence in public then there will be violence on the screen. Instead of blaming producers and directors, everyone needs to look at themselves. As for this particular production, there is nothing that promotes violence.”

23.06.2007
ELİF TUNCA İSTANBUL

Fida Film Ad Campaign

Fida Film acquires theatrical, home video and television domestic rights for foreign films in Turkey and also started feature film production recently. The aim of this campaign is to make people realise that when movies are concerned, the entertainment aspect lasts even after the film ends on silver screen. People play “charades” and try to explain/guess the name of a movie -most probably brought to them by Fida Film- by using just body gestures. The campaign makes use of illustrations to visualise those body gestures in viewers mind.


Credits:
Advert title(s): Born on the screen, lives in memories: Cinema
Advertising Agency :GREY Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey ;Creative Director: Tugbay Bilbay, Engin Kafadar, Tevfik Semsi Naipoglu; Art Director: Caglar Biyikoglu | Copywriter: Tugbay Bilbay |Illustrator: Caglar Biyikoglu |Typography: Engin Kafadar

Altin Koza | Feature Film Applications

Altin Koza Film Festival
Türkocağı Mah. Ulus Cad. Tarihi Kız Lisesi Binası Seyhan / Adana Turkey
T:(90 322) 352 47 13 F: (90 322) 359 24 96

Altin Koza | Feature Film Applications

1. 2 Süper Film Birden - Murat Şeker
2. Ademin Trenleri - Hasan Barış Pirhasan
3. Araf - Biray Dalkıran
4. Barda - Serdar Akar
5. Beynelmilel - Sırrı Süreyya Önder
6. Bir İhtimal Daha Var - Uğur Uludağ
7. Cenneti Beklerken - Derviş Zaim
8. Çinliler Geliyor - Zeki Ökten
9. Eve Dönüş - Ömer Uğur
10. Eve Giden Yol 1914 - Semir Arslanyürek
11. Fikret Bey - Selma Köksal Çekiç
12. Hokkabaz - Cem Yılmaz, Ali Taner Baltacı
13. İlk Aşk - Nihat Durak
14. Joenjoy - Nur Akalın
15. Kader - Zeki Demirkubuz
16. Kardan Adamlar - Altan Gönülşen
17. Küçük Kıyamet - Yağmur Ve Durul Taylan
18. Mavi Gözlü Dev - Biket İlhan
19. Polis - Onur Ünlü
20. Sis ve Gece - Turgut Yasalar
21. Son Osmanlı Yandım Ali - Mustafa Şevki Doğan
22. Takva - Özer Kızıltan
23. Unutulmayanlar - Ayhan Sonyürek

Beynelmilel' sweeps awards at Altın Koza

Beynelmilel' sweeps awards at Altın Koza

Adana's Altın Koza (golden cocoon) Film Festival, which went international in its 14th edition this year, handed out awards to the winners of the national feature-length film competition on Saturday night as the seven-day festival readied to wrap up tonight.

The big winner of the night was "Beynelmilel" (international), which scooped major awards such as best film, best screenplay and people's choice, while Cezmi Baskın took home the award for best actor for his role in the film. Meral Okay and Dilberay shared the award for best supporting actress, both for their roles in "Beynelmilel." The film also brought the best director of photography award to Gökhan Atılmış, reported the Anatolia news agency.

Another significant winner at the ceremony was Vahide Gördüm, who took home the best actress award for her role in the movie "İlk Aşk" (first love), which also brought the best director prize to its director Nihat Durak. The film also won the jury's special prize named after the late actor and filmmaker Yılmaz Güney.

The festival, organized by the Adana Greater Municipality, also handed out the awards for the winners of the student films competition. Two productions shared the best documentary prize. Eskişehir Anadolu University's Serkan Yüksel won for "Issız" (deserted) and Konya Selçuk University's Caner Erzincan and Mevlüt Çiftçi took the prize for "Buzlar Kırılınca" (when ices break).

The festival's selection committee, presided over by actress Çolpan İlhan, consisted of photography artist Mehmet Bayhan, filmmaker Reis Çelik, musician Gökhan Kırdar, writer Tuna Kire-mitçi, academic Oğuz Makal, director of photography Özdemir Öğüt, screenwriter Safa Önal, movie critic Agah Özgüç, actress Işık Yenersu and producer Kadri Yurdatap.