Rotterdam 2008 | My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek)

My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek) - TT (IFFR 2008)

Turkey, Netherlands, United Kingdom 2008
Director Hüseyin Karabey
Producer Hüseyin Karabey, Lucinda Englehart, Frans van Gestel, Jeroen Beker
Production company A-si Film Yapim, Spier Films, IDTV FILM/Motel Films
Sales Insomnia World Sales
Print source Lucinda Englehart
Scenario Hüseyin Karabey, Ayca Damgaci
Cast Ayca Damgaci, Hama Ali Kahn, Nesrin Cavadzade, Emrah Ozdemir, Cengiz Bozkurt, Mahir Gunsiray
Photography Emre Tanyildiz
Editor Mary Stephen
Sound Mohammed Mokhtari
Music Kemal Sahir Gurel, Huseyin Yildiz, Erdal Guney
Length 92'
Website www.asifilm.com

Dramatic road movie based on a true story about a young theatre actress from Istanbul who wants to go to her lover. The problem is that he is Kurdish, is in northern Iraq and the American invasion of Iraq makes communication even more difficult. With the original video letters.

Ayça is a Turkish actress and she lives in Istanbul. On a film set in the West of Turkey, she meets Hama Ali, a Kurdish actor. The two fall in love while shooting a film. After the shoot, Ayça returns to Istanbul and Hama has to go back to his home, Süleymaniye in northern Iraq . Ayça and Hama continue their relationship on the telephone and via letters, while America prepares to attack Iraq. The post often doesn't work and the phone lines in Iraq are usually cut off. From time to time, Ayça receives a declaration of love from her lover on video. Ayça can no longer bear the distance between them and decides to travel to northern Iraq. But getting into a country at war turns out to be just as difficult as getting out.
The protagonists in the film are not actors who would quickly be cast for an average love story. My Marlon and Brando is a real story with and about real people. Ayça and Hama Ali are actors in their everyday lives, here they play themselves. In this way the film creates a tense balance between documentary and fiction. The love letters and video letters in the film are real, but Ayça is acting her own life. Result: a powerful and penetrating road movie in which a committed film maker approaches the world through a personal story.