Interview | Film director Hüseyin Karabey

Film director Hüseyin Karabey
Claims that the film "Gitmek" (known in English as "My Marlon and Brando") was too "divisive" have led to its screenings in Switzerland being halted earlier this month. But on Friday, 20 copies of the cross-border love story hit the big screen in Turkish movie theaters.


This film, which has already collected such prizes as best film, best director and best actress at a variety of international film festivals, has a total of eight awards to its name. And this can be said about the work: "Gitmek" is absolutely not divisive; to the contrary, it highlights Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood.

The film is based on the story of a journey taken to Iraq during the war by a young Turkish woman named Ayça, who risks her life to see her Iraqi Kurdish love, Hama Ali. The fact that the screenplay is based on the real lives of the leading actors makes this film all the more interesting. This is the first feature-length film by director Hüseyin Karabey; the shooting of this film occurred over a total of 6,000 kilometers in Turkey, Iran and Iraq. We, of course, discussed Turkish-Kurdish tension with Karabey when we talked about his latest film. As a last point before moving on to our interview, it would be fair to note that though "My Marlon and Brando" is an art film, it is certainly neither boring nor slow.

What do you make of the statement from Minister of Culture Ertuğrul Günay, who said that the showings of "Gitmek" at the Swiss Culturescapes Art Festival had been banned because the film was divisive?

Well, actually, this was not the statement made by the minister. But that was what people inferred from that statement. In news about this incident, these were the words attributed to the minister, though.

Well, actually, the minister said: "We do not have a problem with this film. This film is already a part of the festival program." But some articles that appeared in Swiss newspapers carried quotes from different people in various regions of Turkey who said that they would not have allowed the film to be shown, which is why I never took any of this to be aimed at me. There is definitely no such divisiveness in this film. This is, after all, a film that received support from the Ministry of Culture and has passed through the most detailed inspections. In fact, there was not even any age limit placed on this film.

In any case, these recent developments have helped formed certain preconceptions about this film. How are you going to transcend these preconceptions?

I have spoken with high-placed authorities at the Ministry of Culture, who have assured me that in fact Ertuğrul Günay will be attending our gala showing in Ankara. This gala will be on either Nov. 24 or 26.

You say, "If only there were 10 films made like 'Gitmek,' the Kurdish problem in Turkey would be solved." As a cinematographer, how do you think the Kurdish problem could be solved?

Television series tend to portray Kurds as terrorists, narcotics smugglers or people who carry out honor killings. We need to talk about the Kurdish problem on a more real, human level. We need films that show Kurds and Turks living in equal conditions, so that people understand that both sides are people who can fall in love, who have senses of humor, who miss their children, who want the warring to end. All Kurds really want to achieve the same level of life they see others enjoying when they watch television; they really don't want anything else.

The people in the main roles are not types we are accustomed to seeing in films. One is a quite heavy woman, while the other is a bald man. Why did you make these choices for actors?

I wanted to turn all the clichés upside down. For me, the real heroes in life are us, the real people. I try to remind people of this, convince people of this. I am not going to create false heroes in my films. To wit, you notice that during the film, Ayça becomes more and more beautiful, and in fact you begin to become jealous of her love affair, and you begin to wish that you too could experience something like it.

Right up to the end of the film, the viewer doesn't see the conditions of war in which Hama Ali lives. Was this because of the difficulties in filming in that region, or for some other reason?

There is a different reason, actually. In the film, we always view Hama Ali through Ayça's screen. This is actually a criticism of our perception of reality these days. … These days, we make do with what we see on our monitors. We no longer seem to say, "Let me go and see what actually happened there." Also, I wanted to make the action of Ayça going to Iraq form some question marks in the viewers' minds. Like, "Is it worth it for this man? Is this man really giving it his best effort? Is it really difficult to get from Turkey into Iraq?" Because if the man awaiting her on the other side had been some sort of Brad Pitt type, I have no doubt everyone would have jumped at this journey! I think what is important in life is not who you love, but how you love.

In the news, we read that while people pass from the north of Iraq into Turkey, that the reverse is impossible. While Ayça attempts the impossible, Hama Ali says in his video to her that as soon as the borders are opened, he will walk all the way to be by her side. Is this a mistake in the plot? Or are we to understand that Hama Ali does not love her as much as she loves him?

Actually, there is not enough information provided in the film at that point. I should have underscored this more clearly. You are not the first person to ask this question, and you are clearly a careful viewer. It is impossible for Iraqis to go back and forth between Iraq and Turkey. As for Turks, they do have permission to pass from Iraq back into Turkey. But Turks do not have permission to go from Turkey into Iraq.

In one part of the film, we hear the words, "The Americans are killing the Arabs, and the Arabs are killing each other and the Kurds. The Kurds are afraid of being killed as Saddam did to them in 1991." Are the Kurds as pure as all this?

No, definitely not. In fact, the film contains criticism of Kurdish leadership because there is no meaning to savior and freedom that comes from another's hand. In the end, forces may come and stay for a while in your land, but the same pressures put on by Saddam will be exerted by another this time around. Hama Ali is living out these conflicts on his insides. He is afraid that what happened to the Kurds in 1991 will happen again. In the end, this is the result of mistaken decisions taken by their politicians.

A chauffeur from Diyarbakır is talking to Ayça as though he knows absolutely nothing about Istanbul, and asks her "Do they ask for passports in İstanbul?" Then he adds: "I am from Diyarbakır, but they ask us for our identification. It's a crime if you have one and crime if you don't!" What is it that you are trying to explain here? I understand how not carrying your identification around with you could be a crime, but how could it be a crime to have your ID with you?

With these words, I wanted to portray some of the pressures that Kurds experience in daily life. There is no one who doesn't know that when certain [violent] incidents take place in Istanbul, police stop people to check their identity cards and that it is always the citizens from the East who are taken under arrest. In this sense, whether or not you have your identity card with you, there is no way to avoid being arrested. If what we are talking about divisiveness, this derives directly from the fact that the state itself does not treat its citizens equally. The anger of the chauffeur is this: "You come and go from over there. But did you know, around here, it's not so easy. No matter what we do, it's difficult. No matter what we do, we are guilty!" Automatically seeing certain factions as potentially guilty in a number of situations opens the way to great anger. And what I am most afraid of is this anger exploding. That anger, which still hasn't exploded despite all the provocation that has occurred, if it does in fact explode one day, there will be very bad things that happen here in Turkey. Because some people no longer have anything left to lose: no village, no home, no work, belittled every day … With this film, I am saying, "Be a little different from the others, try to understand the spiritual state your brothers and sisters are in, support them." This film really says "The real problem facing the people living in the East is how they are supposed to live dignified daily lives. There is really no other request on the table, be aware of this." I believe that the moment people really become aware of this, peace will settle permanently in Turkey.

When he sees images of mountains in his video, Hama Ali says, "The mountains are the friends of Kurds." After that, he shows a photograph of himself from when he was 23 years old, saying that at that time he was a peshmerga. Won't these things disturb Turkish viewers?

Well, I think that if a viewer is determined to find something wrong or disturbing about the film, they will find it in the end, no matter what. We need to allow an approach which is on the side of friendship, peace and talking about the brotherhood between these two peoples. If you are trying to prove a certain point, of course you can perceive certain things I say, or certain things you see in the film, as proving your point. But of course, this should not be my goal, nor yours either.

It is quite clear that this film is not in fact divisive. But there are unsettling details in this film.

Well, for 92 minutes, this film does talk about gigantic topics. You are not, for example, mentioning the words spoken by the Kurdish mother. If you put the spotlight on these words, which are about peace, then this is what the viewer will watch out for. I am defending this film, which is why I have invited the Ministry of Culture to attend the gala opening.

Is the love between Ayça and Hama Ali, who risk death for this love, still ongoing?

The war does not allow this love to live on. Their relationship turns into a very close friendship. If they weren't such good friends, we would never have been able to make this film.

That whole "I don't want a Kurdish son-in-law" or "I can't imagine having a Turkish daughter-in-law" mentality continues in Turkey even today. Why? How do we get over this?

Well, to prevent peace just because certain people don't want it is stupid. This is actually a kind of special wealth; it's from God that we have become so intertwined. If it weren't for the rising tides of nationalism we have seen over these past five years, no one would even be thinking these things. We need to share with each other the richness that our mutual existences provide. Actually, I do believe that an incredible level of peace and brotherhood really does exist on this soil.

16 November 2008, Sunday

SERKAN KARA İSTANBUL

Thessaloniki 49 | My Marlon and Brando by Hüseyin Karabey

My Marlon and Brando / Hüseyin Karabey
Hama Ali, a charismatic B movie actor from Iraq, and Ayça, a similarly rotund but charming actress from Turkey, met on a film-set. Their love affair continued across borders through video love letters and broken phone calls until the Americans invaded Iraq and hellish violence engulfed the country. As most people fled from East to West seeking safety, Ayça decided to make the journey from West to East, seeking her lover. This dramatic feature film is the true story of her extraordinary, and ultimately tragic, experiences in such mad times...
Director:	Hüseyin Karabey
Script:	Hüseyin Karabey, Ayça Damgaci
Photographer:	A. Emre Tanyildiz
Montage:	Mary Stephen
Sound:	Mohammed Mokhtari
Music:	Kemal S. Gürel, Erdal Güney, Hüseyin Yildiz
Costumes:	Yasemin Taşkin
Actors:	Ayça Damgaci (Ayça), Hama Ali Khan (Hama Ali), Cengiz Bozkurt (Azad), Savaş Emrah Özdemir (Soran), Ani İpekkaya (Mrs Ariknas)
World Sales:	Insomnia World Sales, France T. +33 1 4358 0804 F. +33 1 4358 0932 contact@insomnia-sales.com www.insomnia-sales.com
Producer:	Lucinda Englehart, Hüseyin Karabey, Sophie Lorant
Production:	A-si Film Yapim & Motel Films & Spier Films
Production Country:	Turkey, The Netherlands, UK
Type:	35mm Color
Duration:	92'
Production Year:	2008

Hüseyin Karabey

Director

Hüseyin Karabey

Filmography 1996 Etruch Camp (doc.) 1999 Boran (short) 2003 Gift to Nazim Hikmet Ram (doc.) 2001 Silent Death (docu-drama) 2004 Breath (Pina Bausch) (doc.) 2007 I Cheated Death at the Meeting Point (doc.) 2008 My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek) Biography He is regarded as one of Turkey’s new directing talents. His previous works, "Boran" and "Silent Death", both won numerous awards and have been shown at film festivals worldwide. His documentary "Breath", has been shown everywhere from Japan to Cuba. Apart from filming, he also lectures at universities and cultural organizations in Turkey. "My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek)", his first feature film, was selected for Cinemart 2006 and IFP No Borders in New York in 2006.

Tribeca | Hüseyin Karabey

Hüseyin Karabey

Hüseyin Karabey is regarded as one of Turkey's new directing talents at a time when the independent film scene in Turkey is beginning to gain global attention. Karabey developed My Marlon and Brando with Ayça Damgaci, whose true story it tells. Karabey's previous work includes Boran, a short film that explores the disappearances of 5,000 political activists in Turkey during the '90s by merging fact and dramatic treatment, and the feature-length docudrama Silent Death. His documentary Breath was an exclusive look at Pina Bausch, the world-famous German choreographer. Karabey lectures at universities and cultural organizations in Turkey, and his films have won numerous awards.

Director Statement (My Marlon and Brando)

My Marlon and Brando is not a story that we’re used to seeing on screen. It is a story that moves from West to East, against the common current, in a quest for happiness. It is also the true powerful love story of Hama Ali and Ayça. I hope it can shatter some perceptions of the region and introduce audiences to some real, passionate characters. My Marlon and Brando is a personal story that echoes both my own experiences and those of Ayça, whose story it tells. Ayça plays herself in the film. Despite the emotional challenge, she was determined to take audiences on the journey she made herself five years ago.

I passionately believe that if we all had the chance to hear someone else’s story every day of our lives, there would be much deeper cultural understanding. Ayça and I developed the script together with reality intercepting throughout the production period. Ultimately My Marlon and Brando is a love story set against a violent political landscape that is the tragic reality. To me, as challenges in the region continue, it is so important that we do not forget the individuals who inhabit this landscape.

This film blends the real and the fictitious, exposing the interpretive channels shaped by broadcasting policy and national interest, through which we are usually presented life in Iran and Iraq. In the end, our unlikely hero Hama Ali is no longer a faceless refugee from the news but a man who we have come to really know through his charming video love letters.

Ayça’s journey through Iran, Iraq, and Turkey also helps us to witness the meaninglessness of the borders between these countries. We hear the same music and the same jokes across the official borders that provide such a barrier between Ayça and her love.

Tribeca | My Marlon and Brando (Gitmek)

My Marlon and Brando(Gitmek)
In English, Kurdish, Turkish with English subtitles.
2008 92 min Feature Narrative

Directed by: Hüseyin Karabey North American Premiere

www.asifilm.com
Director: Hüseyin Karabey
Principal Cast: Ayça Damgaci, Hama Ali Khan, Savas Emrah Ozdemir, Cengiz Bozkurt, Ani Pekkaya, Volga Sorgu Tekinoglu
Screenwriters: Hüseyin Karabey, Ayça Damgaci
Producers: Lucinda Englehart, Hüseyin Karabey, Sophie Lorant
Editor: Mary Stephen
Co-Producers: Jeroen Beker, Frans van Gestel, Harry Sutherland, Dennis Tal
Director of Photography: A. Emre Tanyildiz
Composers: Kemal S. Gurel, Erdal Guney, Huseyin Yildiz

Program Notes

In March 2003, as American bombs began falling on Baghdad, Turkish actress Ayça Damgaci left her flat in Istanbul and headed for the Iraq border. Behind that cordon was Kurdish actor Hama Ali Khan, the love of Damgaci's life-her moon and stars, her Marlon and her Brando, her everything. Hüseyin Karabey makes his narrative debut retelling the tale of Damgaci's quixotic road trip to the war zone, with Damgaci playing herself and Khan appearing in the actual video love notes he sent to her during their time apart. My Marlon and Brando is a piece of rough magic, a film with a soul as light, a heart as heavy, and a will as steely as its heroine's own.

Karabey's experience as a director of documentaries shines through in his devotion to ethnographic detail-he's eager to let the camera stray, vérité-style, and this helps to bring home Damgaci's growing sense of dislocation. Borders may be porous, but it is still possible to feel a stranger in a strange land. Really, though, the movie is Damgaci's-a brave, tender, and frequently very funny tribute to her love for Khan. Read aloud, her letters to him make for something wonderful and new in the history of lovers beseeching. Communicating in English, their shared tongue, Damgaci's clumsy grasp of the language elevates into rhetoric all the more moving for being flawed. Likewise, through Khan's ham-fistedly hilarious videos, you miss him on Dagmaci's behalf. Politics may turn this comedy about unlikely lovers into a tragedy, but even in its fleeting ungainliness, My Marlon and Brando is a fitting homage to Damgaci and Khan, two matched souls that no impassable border could ever tear asunder. Co-hosted with The American Turkish Society and Moon and Stars Project.

– Peter Scarlet

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Available Territories: All rights and territories available except Turkey, Iran, Netherlands, South Africa, Canada, China

Crossing Borders: A Cinematic Journey from the West to the East

An In-Depth Conversation on My Marlon and Brando, a film by Huseyin Karabey, competing in the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival

Date: May 2, 2008
Time: 7:00 PM-8:30 PM
Location: NYU Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway (corner of Waverly), Screening Room 109, New York, NY 10003

The American Turkish Society and Moon and Stars Project Present Crossing Borders: A Cinematic Journey from the West to the East
An In-Depth Conversation on GITMEK / MY MARLON AND BRANDO

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Huseyin Karabey’s feature debut Gitmek / My Marlon and Brando makes its North American Premiere in 2008 Tribeca Film Festival’s World Narrative Feature Competition . Three years ago, in real-life, Hama Ali, a charismatic B movie actor from Iraq, and Ayca,a fiery actress from Turkey, met on a film-set. Their love affair continued across borders through video love letters until the war in Iraq. As people fled from East to West seeking safety, Ayca decided to make the journey from West to East, seeking her lover. My Marlon and Brando, a feature film in which Ayca plays herself, is based on her extraordinary and, ultimately unexpected, experiences in such sad, mad times….

PANELISTS:

Having studied Dramaturgy and Theater Science at Istanbul University, Ayca Damgaci began her professional acting career at Tiyatro Oyunevi (Theater Playhouse) in 1998. She won the Best Actress Award for her performance in My Marlon and Brando at the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival. She is the founder and one of the lead vocals for “Gocebe Sarkilar” (The Nomadic Songs), a music band singing Sephardic, Roman, Armenian, Andalucian, Balkan, and Anatolian songs. Damgaci is currently rehearsing day and night for two theater productions by Bilsak Theater Atelier and Garaj Istanbul.

Bilge Ebiri is a Turkish American film critic and filmmaker. He writes about film for New York Magazine, Bookforum, and Nerve.com. His first feature film, a comedy thriller entitled New Guy, was released in 2004, and he is currently at work on his second.

Film producer, Lucinda Englehart, is based in London but works on co-productions around the world. Having studied Political Science at Cambridge University, she moved to Cape Town. Here, she wrote extensively on the experience of documentary subjects telling their stories of apartheid memory and produced a number of South African feature films and documentaries. She met Huseyin Karabey at the Venice Film Festival and having heard the extraordinary true story told in My Marlon and Brando, came on board to produce this feature film with him.

Regarded as one of the new directing talents in Turkey’s growing independent film scene, Huseyin Karabey developed My Marlon and Brando with Ayça Damgaci. His previous work includes Boran, a short film that explores the disappearance of 5,000 Turkish political activists in the 1990s by bringing together actual facts and dramatic elements, and the feature-length docudrama Silent Death. His documentary Breath was an exclusive look at Pina Bausch, the world-famous German choreographer. Karabey lectures at universities and cultural organizations in Turkey, and his films have won numerous awards.

Review | My Marlon and Brando (2008)

Rotterdam
My Marlon and Brando Gitmek (Turkey - Netherlands - U.K.)
By JAY WEISSBERGAn

A-si Film Yapim (Turkey)/Motel Films (Netherlands)/Spier Films (U.K.) production, in association with Mechant Loup Prods., Ajans 21. (International sales: Insomnia World Sales, Paris.) Produced by Huseyin Karabey, Lucinda Englehart, Sophie Lorant. Executive producer, Lucinda Englehart. Co-producers, Jeroen Beker, Frans van Gestel, Dennis Tal, Harry Sutherland. Directed by Huseyin Karabey. Screenplay, Karabey, Ayca Damgaci.

With: Ayca Damgaci, Hama Ali Khan, Mahir Gunsiray, Volga Sorgu Tekinoglu, Savas Emrah Ozdemir, Cengiz Bozkurt, Ani Ipekkaya, Nesrin Cavadzade, Hakan Milli, Saadet Ciraci, Claude Leon, Serkan Salman, Ferdiye Bolu, Ahmet Yuksel Or, Omer Sahin, Riza Bas, Rahim Simsek, Sibel Ince, Sabri Mucairet. (Turkish, English, Kurdish, and Farsi dialogue)

The true-life border-crossing romance between a Turkish actress and her Kurdish lover gets a semi-fictional work-up when the real thesp takes on her own role in docu helmer Huseyin Karabey's fiction-feature debut, "My Marlon and Brando." Though there's something oddly masochistic about watching someone play herself in a tragedy, star Ayca Damgaci isn't aiming for the therapeutic route, and while Karabey works best when sticking close to his docu roots, he's crafted a moving statement on war and the confining artificiality of borders. Euro arthouses and fests should join in the journey.
Amid the growing paranoia created by constant news reports of the U.S.' imminent invasion of Baghdad, thesp Damgaci tries to stay in close contact with Hama Ali Khan, an actor in Iraqi Kurdistan she fell in love with some months before. With English as their sole common language, they exchange letters and video diaries (Hama Ali's real vids are used) full of the hyperbole of new love.

But as war breaks out, Damgaci becomes increasingly frustrated by the distance between her home in Istanbul and his in Suleymaniye, near the Iranian frontier. Appeals to Kurds for advice to get across the border are met with discouragement, so she finally makes the cross-country trip by bus and cab, arriving at the town of Habur, only to find that she can't get through to Iraq.

Damgaci is both naive and brave -- she understands what she wants and is determined to get it, but Hama Ali's constant delays make her question whether he really wants to be with her after a year and a half apart. When she finally gets him on the phone, they agree it'll be easier to meet in Iran, so north she goes, into an unknown country where she feels more isolated than ever.

It's painful at times, watching Damgaci go through her story as if it's happening all over again, especially as weariness, fear and despair take control. Her letters are achingly honest, full of deep yearning and insecurity, and this added authenticity unquestionably makes for a more poignant film. Counter to expectations, she's a baby-faced, zaftig woman, Hama Ali an older, jovial fellow: This touch of the everyman strengthens the sense of commonality.

Helming is best when approaching the subject from a docu viewpoint; Karabey ("Silent Death") has an appropriately curious eye for the details around his characters in the form of emotionally focused reportage. An extended scene where Damgaci and her cab driver stumble on a rural wedding inserts both a sense of joy and a warmly ethnographic aspect, but Karabey's style as a fiction helmer isn't fully formed.

Music uses melodies from the various nations, including the unmistakable, riveting voice of Kurdish singer Aynur Dogan, in ways that often increase the sense of melancholic longing. As a title, "My Marlon and Brando" sounds less jokey when heard among a list of endearments ("You are my everything," etc.), and a literal translation of the Turkish "Gitmek," approximately "take oneself away to a place," doesn't work well in English.

Camera (HDV-to-35mm), A. Emre Tanyildiz; editor, Mary Stephen; music, Kemal S. Gurel, Huseyin Yildiz, Erdal Guney; production designer, Alper Yanar; costume designer, Yasemin Taskin; sound (Dolby), Mohammed Mokhtari, Denis Kologlu, Arwin Bakker; line producer, Ozcan Alper; assistant director, Guliz Saglam; casting, Banu Ozturk. Reviewed at Rotterdam Film Festival (Time & Tide), Jan. 25, 2008. Running time: 93 MIN.