Rhode Island IFF Grand Prix to Çağan Irmak

The Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) discovers and empowers filmmakers. Held in Providence, and locations throughout the state of Rhode Island. The 2009 Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) announced the winners in this year’s film competition at its annual Awards Ceremony held at the Providence Biltmore Hotel and the Best Feature Grand Prix went to ISSIZ ADAM (ALONE), Directed by Cagan Irmak (2008, Turkey).

ISSIZ ADAM (ALONE), (2008, Turkey).113 minutes
CAST:CEMAL HUNAL, MELIS BIRKAN, YILDIZ KULTUR, SERIF BOZKURT, GOZDE KANSU, GONCAGUL SUNAR; MUSIC: ARIA; DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GOKHAN TIRYAKI; EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS:I GULCE PRODUCTION COMPANY, MOST PRODUCTION, PRODUCER: MUSTAFA OGUZ, WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: CAGAN IRMAK

Thirty-something ALPER is a talented chef who runs his own restaurant. He may have achieved success in business, but the same cannot be said of his personal life. While caught in the triangle of his gastronomic creations, one-night stands and escort girls, he suddenly finds his life take a new turn when he walks into a second-hand bookshop in the backstreets of Beyoglu to buy and old record he has been looking for.ADA is an attractive, unassuming and relatively stable woman in her late 20s who designs and makes fancy dress costumes for kids. One day, while wandering around Beyoglu in search of a second-hand book, she walks into the same shop as Alper. A womaniser by nature, Alper is impressed by Ada's good looks and sets off in pursuit. As a pretext for introducing himself, he tracks down the book Ada was looking for, buys it and then presents it to her. As it turns out, this book is the beginning of a passionate affair between the two. But the harder Alper tries to create space for Ada in his existing life, the more restricted, the more claustrophobic he starts to feel. Ada, however, is blissfully unaware of the poison in Alper's blood and delights on being in love.Ada and Alper live out their romance as far as they are able and in the measure to which life allows them.

In Mustafa Hakkinda Hersey (All About Mustafa) Cagan Irmak deals with the lies thrown at us by life; in Babam ve Oglum (My Father and My Son) his standpoint is that of a tight-knit Aegean family; and in Ulak (The Messenger) he tells us of the world we live in by believing in stories. This time, however, he sets his story in the metropolis.ALONE is a film that tells of people isolated and made lonely by modern life; people who need people but are blind to that need in the maelstrom of the metropolis; blind, that is, until it is too late. It is a story about food, mothers, old songs and love; a story both bitter and full of hope. PRODUCTION NOTESShooting for a period of five weeks, ALONE used natural locations that were dressed up and redecorated to match the needs of the script.For this film, too, Cagan Irmak reassembled the principal crew he has worked with on many previous successful productions, with the addition this time of DoP Gokhan Tiryaki, who was named Best Cinematographer at the World Film Festival of Bangkok in 2006.The original score, which was recorded live by a large string orchestra, was composed by ARIA. A number of treasured songs from the 70s were also used in the film soundtrack. Careful to brief his cast and crew thoroughly in advance in order to obtain a natural, spontaneous look for the film, the director scheduled in extra hours with his actors to ensure they slipped easily out of role again. Locations were centred largely on the Beyoglu district of Istanbul, where shooting sometimes required a hidden camera and sometimes large crowds of extras. A number of scenes were also photographed in Tarsus, on the southeast Mediterranean coast. Shot in scope, the film was based for the laboratory stage at Istanbul's Sinefekt Studios. The production used synch sound throughout photography, bringing in an experienced crew from overseas for the purpose.