NOKTA/DOT by Dervis Zaim
Focus on World Cinema
Turkey 2008 / Colour / 80 min
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director :Dervis Zaim
Script :Dervis Zaim
Photography :Ercan Yilma
Cast :
Mehmet Ali, Berhat Kilia, Sether Tanriógen
DOT
Ahmet decides to help his friend Selim sell a rare 13th century Koran owned by his family. He puts Selim into contact with the local mafia, who promptly kidnap him and request the Koran as ransom from Selim's father, Veli Hoca. Hoca pays the ransom but when the dust from the shady affair has settled both Selim and the gangsters lie dead. Now Ahmet would like to make amends for his involvement in the crime. He tries to track down Selim's family but learns that Mr. Hoca is dead. Ahmet is racked by remorse but he can't find a way of exorcising his ghosts. He tries Selim's uncle, Humdallah...
Dervis Zaim
Born in Famagusta, Cyprus in 1964, Dervis Zaim graduated from Warwick University in England and studied film production in London. In 1995, his first novel, Ares in Wonderland, won the prestigious Yunus Nadi literary prize in Turkey. A year later he made an auspicious debut as a director with SOMERSAULT IN A COFFIN. Among his other films: ELEPHANTS AND GRASS (2000), MUD (2003), WAITING FOR HEAVEN (2006).
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Montreal 08 | SHADOW by Mehmet Güreli
SHADOW by Mehmet Güreli
Focus on World Cinema
2008 / Colour / 113 min
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director :
Mehmet Güreli
Script :
Nilgün Önes
Photography :
Ahmet Sesigürgil
Editor :
Ulas Cihan Simsek
Cast :
Görkem Yeltan, Serkan Ercan, Kaan Çakir, Memet Ali Alabor
SHADOW
Halim, a poet, is an old friend of Nevzat and who lives in Ankara with his wife and child. He comes to Istanbul because of his mother's illness. Nevzat, meanwhile, plans to marry Selma, the woman he loves. When Halim comes to visit, he introduces him to Selma. But there is a mystery about her: Selma's father, two husbands and a housekeeper have all mysteriously committed suicide. Halim and Selma take to each and Nevzat becomes jealous. They break their friendship and while Nevzat becomes estranged from Selma, Halim becomes more friendly and they fall in love. Halim cares about nothing else. Then Nevzat gets shocking news: Halim has committed suicide. What is it about Selma?
Mehmet Güreli
Born in 1949 in Istanbul, Mehmet Güreli studied philosophy in Istanbul University Faculty of Litterature. He published his first book in 1985, then he filmed a documentary, VAPURLAR (1987). While continuing as a publisher and writer, he shot his second documentary, Necdet Mahfi Ayral, in 2003. He his also an illustrator, with 13 exhibitions of his work since 1998.
Focus on World Cinema
2008 / Colour / 113 min
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director :
Mehmet Güreli
Script :
Nilgün Önes
Photography :
Ahmet Sesigürgil
Editor :
Ulas Cihan Simsek
Cast :
Görkem Yeltan, Serkan Ercan, Kaan Çakir, Memet Ali Alabor
SHADOW
Halim, a poet, is an old friend of Nevzat and who lives in Ankara with his wife and child. He comes to Istanbul because of his mother's illness. Nevzat, meanwhile, plans to marry Selma, the woman he loves. When Halim comes to visit, he introduces him to Selma. But there is a mystery about her: Selma's father, two husbands and a housekeeper have all mysteriously committed suicide. Halim and Selma take to each and Nevzat becomes jealous. They break their friendship and while Nevzat becomes estranged from Selma, Halim becomes more friendly and they fall in love. Halim cares about nothing else. Then Nevzat gets shocking news: Halim has committed suicide. What is it about Selma?
Mehmet Güreli
Born in 1949 in Istanbul, Mehmet Güreli studied philosophy in Istanbul University Faculty of Litterature. He published his first book in 1985, then he filmed a documentary, VAPURLAR (1987). While continuing as a publisher and writer, he shot his second documentary, Necdet Mahfi Ayral, in 2003. He his also an illustrator, with 13 exhibitions of his work since 1998.
Montreal 08 |SUMMER BOOK by Seyfi Teoman
SUMMER BOOK by Seyfi Teoman
2008 / Colour / 94 min
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director :
Seyfi Teoman
Script :
Seyfi Teoman
Photography :
Arnau Valls Colomer
Editor :
Çiçek Kahraman
Cast :
Taner Birsel, Ayten Tökün, Osman Inan, Harun Özüag, Tayfun Günay
SUMMER BOOK
In a small town in Turkish Anatolia, the school holiday has begun, the children in their blue uniforms happily running outdoors. Only Ali,10, seems troubled. One of his classmates has stolen his schoolbook, and now he won't be able to do his homework. His older brother Veysel comes to visit. He doesn't want to go back to his military service. He tells his father, Mustafa, a stern, argicultural merchant, that he wants to study business management at the university in Istanbul. His uncle Hasan, a divorced butcher, warns Veysel that life in the big city can be hard. The mother Guler chats with her friends over a glass of tea, seemingly calm but harbouring a secret suspicion that Mustafa has a mistress. The minor tensions of family life are thrown into sudden relief when Mustafa suffers a brain hemorrhage while away on a business trip..."SUMMER BOOK breathes a quiet assurance that's very impressive for a first feature..." -- Derek Elley (Variety)"Turkish first-time director Seyfi Teoman captures both the charm of what it means to be a child during summer vacation and an overwhelming feeling of grief in SUMMER BOOK." -- Gregory Valens (Hollywood Reporter)
Seyfi Teoman
Born in Turkey in 1977, Seyfi Teoman studied economics in Istanbul and filmmaking at the Lodz Film Academy in Poland. He made his directorial debut in 2004 with a short film, Apartment. SUMMER BOOK is his first feature.
2008 / Colour / 94 min
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director :
Seyfi Teoman
Script :
Seyfi Teoman
Photography :
Arnau Valls Colomer
Editor :
Çiçek Kahraman
Cast :
Taner Birsel, Ayten Tökün, Osman Inan, Harun Özüag, Tayfun Günay
SUMMER BOOK
In a small town in Turkish Anatolia, the school holiday has begun, the children in their blue uniforms happily running outdoors. Only Ali,10, seems troubled. One of his classmates has stolen his schoolbook, and now he won't be able to do his homework. His older brother Veysel comes to visit. He doesn't want to go back to his military service. He tells his father, Mustafa, a stern, argicultural merchant, that he wants to study business management at the university in Istanbul. His uncle Hasan, a divorced butcher, warns Veysel that life in the big city can be hard. The mother Guler chats with her friends over a glass of tea, seemingly calm but harbouring a secret suspicion that Mustafa has a mistress. The minor tensions of family life are thrown into sudden relief when Mustafa suffers a brain hemorrhage while away on a business trip..."SUMMER BOOK breathes a quiet assurance that's very impressive for a first feature..." -- Derek Elley (Variety)"Turkish first-time director Seyfi Teoman captures both the charm of what it means to be a child during summer vacation and an overwhelming feeling of grief in SUMMER BOOK." -- Gregory Valens (Hollywood Reporter)
Seyfi Teoman
Born in Turkey in 1977, Seyfi Teoman studied economics in Istanbul and filmmaking at the Lodz Film Academy in Poland. He made his directorial debut in 2004 with a short film, Apartment. SUMMER BOOK is his first feature.
Turkish Films of 32. Montreal World Film Festival
The 32nd edition of the Montreal World Film Festival, August 21 -September 1, 2008
First Films World Competition
TATIL KITABI, 2008 / Colour / 94 min, Dir. Seyfi Teoman, Turkey.
Focus on World Cinema
GÖLGE, 2008 / Colour / 113 min, Dir. Mehmet Güreli, Turkey - Italy.
NOKTA, 2008 / Colour / 80 min, Dir. Dervis Zaim, Turkey.
SONBAHAR, 2008 / Colour / 106 min, Dir. Özcan Alper, Turkey.
First Films World Competition
TATIL KITABI, 2008 / Colour / 94 min, Dir. Seyfi Teoman, Turkey.
Focus on World Cinema
GÖLGE, 2008 / Colour / 113 min, Dir. Mehmet Güreli, Turkey - Italy.
NOKTA, 2008 / Colour / 80 min, Dir. Dervis Zaim, Turkey.
SONBAHAR, 2008 / Colour / 106 min, Dir. Özcan Alper, Turkey.
Turkish Films of Toronto International Film Festival 2008
Toronto International Film Festival announced final programming details, including the complete lineup of films and programmes, for its 33rd edition running September 4 through 13, 2008. As part of TIFF08, 312 films from 64 countries will screen, including 249 feature-length films, 76 per cent of which are world, international or North American premieres, and 61 of which are feature directorial debuts.
Three Turkish Films are included.
Three Monkeys / Üç Maymun by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Pandora's Box / Pandoranin Kutusu by Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Süt (Milk) by Semih Kaplanoglu
Three Turkish Films are included.
Three Monkeys / Üç Maymun by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Pandora's Box / Pandoranin Kutusu by Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Süt (Milk) by Semih Kaplanoglu
Toronto 08| Süt by Semih Kaplanoglu
Country: Turkey
Year: 2008
Language: Turkish
Runtime: 102 minutes
Format: Colour/35mm
Production Company: Kaplan Film/Arizona Films
Producer: Semih Kaplanoglu
Screenplay: Semih Kaplanoglu
Production Designer: Naz Erayda
Cinematographer: Ozgur Eken
Editor: François Quiquéré
Sound: Marc Nourigat
Principal Cast: Melih Selcuk, Basak Koklukaya
International Sales Agent: The Match Factory
When a teenager learns that his mother is having an affair, he has to decide whether to base his reaction on the traditions of their patriarchal culture or on those of the recently modernized society that is emerging in Turkey.
Yusuf, a young poet, and his mother are struggling to make a living off the milk they get from their cows. Their town, like Turkey as a whole, is undergoing rapid industrialization, which is taking business away from local farmers. When his mother falls in love with the town's station master, her needs begin to awaken. Yusuf tries to ignore her burgeoning affair, but when he is drafted for military service and fails to pass his medical exam, the combined stresses become too much for him. He is pushed to make weighty decisions that will irreversibly determine the course of his relationship with his mother.
Much like Aida Begic's Snow and Mijke de Jong's Katia's Sister, both screening at this year's Festival, Süt addresses the complex effects of the rapid modernization occurring in Old Europe and western Asia. For writer-director Semih Kaplanóglu, rural life represents the last vestiges of Turkish tradition – and it is in these small, Old World villages that he has set his Yusuf trilogy, of which Süt is the second installment. Translating to “egg,” “milk” and “honey” in English, the titles of the three films are suggestive of their central concern: the changes that Kaplanóglu sees occurring in his home country. Just as production of some of the most elemental ingredients begins to adapt to the modern world, so must his characters' most fundamental mores.
Traditionally, rural women in Turkey have been overshadowed by their fathers, husbands, sons and families. Their own needs and desires have rarely been acknowledged. In Süt, Kaplanóglu filters his sweeping observations about the shift in Turkey's social customs through the painful transformation occurring between Yusuf and his mother.
Kaplanóglu's visual style has a graceful symbolism. His spare, rural landscapes and sparse dialogue mean that the merest glance or slightest drawing of breath becomes significant. It is a technique that imbues the entire film, and indeed the greater triptych, with poetic force.
Michèle Maheux
Semih Kaplanoglu was born in Izmir, Turkey, and completed cinema studies at Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir. His feature films are Away From Home (00), Angel's Fall (04), Yumurta (07) and Süt (08).
Year: 2008
Language: Turkish
Runtime: 102 minutes
Format: Colour/35mm
Production Company: Kaplan Film/Arizona Films
Producer: Semih Kaplanoglu
Screenplay: Semih Kaplanoglu
Production Designer: Naz Erayda
Cinematographer: Ozgur Eken
Editor: François Quiquéré
Sound: Marc Nourigat
Principal Cast: Melih Selcuk, Basak Koklukaya
International Sales Agent: The Match Factory
When a teenager learns that his mother is having an affair, he has to decide whether to base his reaction on the traditions of their patriarchal culture or on those of the recently modernized society that is emerging in Turkey.
Yusuf, a young poet, and his mother are struggling to make a living off the milk they get from their cows. Their town, like Turkey as a whole, is undergoing rapid industrialization, which is taking business away from local farmers. When his mother falls in love with the town's station master, her needs begin to awaken. Yusuf tries to ignore her burgeoning affair, but when he is drafted for military service and fails to pass his medical exam, the combined stresses become too much for him. He is pushed to make weighty decisions that will irreversibly determine the course of his relationship with his mother.
Much like Aida Begic's Snow and Mijke de Jong's Katia's Sister, both screening at this year's Festival, Süt addresses the complex effects of the rapid modernization occurring in Old Europe and western Asia. For writer-director Semih Kaplanóglu, rural life represents the last vestiges of Turkish tradition – and it is in these small, Old World villages that he has set his Yusuf trilogy, of which Süt is the second installment. Translating to “egg,” “milk” and “honey” in English, the titles of the three films are suggestive of their central concern: the changes that Kaplanóglu sees occurring in his home country. Just as production of some of the most elemental ingredients begins to adapt to the modern world, so must his characters' most fundamental mores.
Traditionally, rural women in Turkey have been overshadowed by their fathers, husbands, sons and families. Their own needs and desires have rarely been acknowledged. In Süt, Kaplanóglu filters his sweeping observations about the shift in Turkey's social customs through the painful transformation occurring between Yusuf and his mother.
Kaplanóglu's visual style has a graceful symbolism. His spare, rural landscapes and sparse dialogue mean that the merest glance or slightest drawing of breath becomes significant. It is a technique that imbues the entire film, and indeed the greater triptych, with poetic force.
Michèle Maheux
Semih Kaplanoglu was born in Izmir, Turkey, and completed cinema studies at Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir. His feature films are Away From Home (00), Angel's Fall (04), Yumurta (07) and Süt (08).
Toronto 08 | Three Monkeys / Üç maymun by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Country: Turkey/France/Italy
Year: 2008
Language: Turkish
Runtime: 109 minutes
Format: Colour/35mm
Production Company: Zeynofilm Produksiyon Hizmetleri Ltd./NBC Film/Pyramide Productions/BIM Distribuzione
Producer: Zeynep Özbatur
Screenplay: Ebru Ceyland, Ercan Kesal, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Production Designer: Ebru Ceylan
Cinematographer: Gökhan Tiryaki
Editor: Ayhan Ergürsel, Bora Göksingöl, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Sound: Murat Senürkmez
Principal Cast: Hatice Aslan, Gürkan Aydin, Yavuz Bingöl, Ercan Kesal, Ahmet Rifat Sungar
Canadian Distributor: Mongrel Media
US Distributor: New Yorker Films
International Sales Agent: Pyramide International
Expanding upon his work in Climates, Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan delivers another searing psychological drama about the unspoken dynamics in a dysfunctional family.
Taking the proverbial “three monkeys” as its title and moral anchor, Ceylan's newest film is composed of tightly wound secrets; evils that are not seen, heard or spoken, but which wreak a distressing havoc on the characters' lives.
Servet (Ercan Kesal), a wealthy politician, has caused a hit-and-run accident, and persuades his driver, Eyüp (Yavuz Bingöl), to assume responsibility. Eyüp is promised a sizeable sum of money upon his release from prison, but this initial act of subterfuge leads to much darker deceits.
In his absence, Eyüp's seductive wife Hacer (Hatice Aslan) becomes involved with Servet, and the couple's brooding teenaged son Ismail must carry the weight of their secret when he visits his father in jail.
Eyüp's release functions as a metaphorical unleashing of past indiscretions – his family's deceits, desires, infidelities and anxieties surface as grand moral fictions. Ceylan plays these against one another, harnessing the inability of Eyüp, Hacer, Ismail and Servet to communicate among themselves and wringing the resulting tension through every scene. Blind to the violence and moral decay brought about by their actions, they eventually – and collectively – come to personify the eponymous monkeys.
As he did on Climates, Ceylan works here with cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki to produce breathtaking high-definition images, again demonstrating the exceptional potential of digital technology. Ceylan's sombre aesthetic and bracing statements make for a thrilling investigation into the mysterious contradictions of the human soul. This is a stunning work that confirms Ceylan as a master of his art.
Dimitri Eipides
Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul and graduated with an engineering degree from Bosphorus University before studying filmmaking for two years at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. His films include the short Cocoon (95) and the features The Small Town (97), Clouds of May (00), Distant (03), which won the Grand Prix as well as the prize for best actor for its two male leads at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, and Climates (06). Three Monkeys (08) is his fifth feature.
Year: 2008
Language: Turkish
Runtime: 109 minutes
Format: Colour/35mm
Production Company: Zeynofilm Produksiyon Hizmetleri Ltd./NBC Film/Pyramide Productions/BIM Distribuzione
Producer: Zeynep Özbatur
Screenplay: Ebru Ceyland, Ercan Kesal, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Production Designer: Ebru Ceylan
Cinematographer: Gökhan Tiryaki
Editor: Ayhan Ergürsel, Bora Göksingöl, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Sound: Murat Senürkmez
Principal Cast: Hatice Aslan, Gürkan Aydin, Yavuz Bingöl, Ercan Kesal, Ahmet Rifat Sungar
Canadian Distributor: Mongrel Media
US Distributor: New Yorker Films
International Sales Agent: Pyramide International
Expanding upon his work in Climates, Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan delivers another searing psychological drama about the unspoken dynamics in a dysfunctional family.
Taking the proverbial “three monkeys” as its title and moral anchor, Ceylan's newest film is composed of tightly wound secrets; evils that are not seen, heard or spoken, but which wreak a distressing havoc on the characters' lives.
Servet (Ercan Kesal), a wealthy politician, has caused a hit-and-run accident, and persuades his driver, Eyüp (Yavuz Bingöl), to assume responsibility. Eyüp is promised a sizeable sum of money upon his release from prison, but this initial act of subterfuge leads to much darker deceits.
In his absence, Eyüp's seductive wife Hacer (Hatice Aslan) becomes involved with Servet, and the couple's brooding teenaged son Ismail must carry the weight of their secret when he visits his father in jail.
Eyüp's release functions as a metaphorical unleashing of past indiscretions – his family's deceits, desires, infidelities and anxieties surface as grand moral fictions. Ceylan plays these against one another, harnessing the inability of Eyüp, Hacer, Ismail and Servet to communicate among themselves and wringing the resulting tension through every scene. Blind to the violence and moral decay brought about by their actions, they eventually – and collectively – come to personify the eponymous monkeys.
As he did on Climates, Ceylan works here with cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki to produce breathtaking high-definition images, again demonstrating the exceptional potential of digital technology. Ceylan's sombre aesthetic and bracing statements make for a thrilling investigation into the mysterious contradictions of the human soul. This is a stunning work that confirms Ceylan as a master of his art.
Dimitri Eipides
Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul and graduated with an engineering degree from Bosphorus University before studying filmmaking for two years at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. His films include the short Cocoon (95) and the features The Small Town (97), Clouds of May (00), Distant (03), which won the Grand Prix as well as the prize for best actor for its two male leads at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, and Climates (06). Three Monkeys (08) is his fifth feature.
Toronto 08| Pandora's Box /Pandoranin Kutusu by Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Pandora's Box /Pandoranin Kutusu by Yeşim Ustaoğlu Country: Turkey/France/Germany/Belgium Year: 2008 Language: Turkish Runtime: 112 minutes Format: Colour/35mm Production Company: Ustaoğlu Film Yapim/Silkroad Production/ Les Petites Lumières/ Stromboli Pictures/The Match Factory Producer: Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Muhammet Çakiral, Serkan Çakarer, Behrooz Hashemian, Setareh Farsi, Natacha Devillers, Catherine Burniaux, Michael Weber, Tobias Pausinger Screenplay: Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Selma Kaygusuz Production Designer: H.F. Farsi, Elif Taşçioğlu, Serdar Yilmaz Cinematographer: Jacques Besse Editor: Franck Nakache Sound: Bernd Von Bassevitz Music: Jean-Pierre Mas Principal Cast: Tsilla Chelton, Derya Alabora, Onur Unsal, Övül Avkiran, Osamn Sonant International Sales Agent: The Match Factory “Pandora's Box is a story of alienation and isolation. It is a story of individuals whose lives have been shaped by a sterile, middle-class morality, a story that many people touched by the inevitable combination of capitalism and modernity can identify with. It is a kind of human landscape, both universal and singular at the same time…” – Yeşim Ustaoğlu, director of Pandora's Box Like many films in the Festival this year, Turkish director Yeşim Ustaoğlu's Pandora's Box is concerned with the curse of modernity. As simple lives begin to give way to the hum and glamour of an industrialized, globalized lifestyle, a Pandora's box inevitably opens. Ustaoğlu tells the story of an estranged family – two sisters, Nesrin and Güzin, and a brother, Mehmet – who live their comfortable, preoccupied lives in Istanbul. When the siblings find out that their elderly mother, Nusret, has gone missing, they return to their small coastal hometown to find her. As the group journeys through the countryside, they realize that they are strangers in their own land – as ignorant to the ancient Turkish countryside as they are to each other. Most of all, however, they have become alienated from themselves, their dreams distracted by prejudice, nihilism and lazy concessions to the status quo. What starts out as a begrudging trip to find their mother turns into a voyage of self-discovery for the threesome, a poetic reordering of their psyches as the reality of the world around them is reflected back onto themselves. Ustaoğlu's visual style mimics the dual nature of this journey, with sweeping panoramas of Turkish landscapes that mirror the characters' inner worlds. There is a rich sense of authenticity that firmly grounds the film's cerebral themes in reality. The film plays with several paradoxes, not the least the fact that communication is easiest between the very old and the young. Nusret's own children cannot comprehend her emotions, but her grandson, Murat, can: he and his grandmother reach a state of mutual understanding through a profoundly touching display of affection that finally bonds them. Ustaoğlu keeps an unwavering eye on the drama unfolding in this family, using them as a potent metaphor for all the unsightliness – and hope – she sees promised in the modern world. Dimitri Eipides Yeşim Ustaoğlu was born in Turkey. She directed the documentary short Life on Their Shoulders in 2004, and has directed a number of feature films, including The Trace (94), Journey to the Sun (99), which won the Blue Angel Award for Best European Film and the Peace Film Award at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival, Waiting for the Clouds (04) and Pandora's Box (08).
Friday, August 29, 2008
INAF-466-01 Fall 2008 Georgetown University
INAF-466-01 Georgetown University
SCREENING and LECTURE by ERJU ACKMAN Tue 6:15-8:15PM ICC 118
COURSE by DAVID CUTHELL Wed 4:15-6:05 ICC 206
BORDERS IDEOLOGY AND IDENTITY
1.YOL
2.PROPAGANDA
IDENTITY IN A RURAL SETTING
3.WAITING FOR THE CLOUDS/BULUTLARI BEKLERKEN
4.TIMES AND WINDS/FIVE TIMES/BES VAKIT
TRANSPORTED IDENTITIES IN AN URBAN SETTING
5.ESKIYA/BANDIT
6.BRIDE/GELIN
IDENTITY AND MARGINALIZATION
7.SOMERSAULT IN A COFFIN/TABUTTA ROVESATA
8.TAKVA
IDENTITIES OF REAL AND ASSUMED FAMILIES
9.FATHER AND SON/BABAM VE OGLUM
10.HOKKABAZ
DUAL IDENTITIES OF EU TURKS
11.EDGE OF HEAVEN -or- HEAD ON
__________________________________
SOURCES
Click to get a PDF of Turkish Cinema History 1897-2006
The Ten Best Turkish Films of All Time (2003 Poll)
__________________________________
SCREENING and LECTURE by ERJU ACKMAN Tue 6:15-8:15PM ICC 118
COURSE by DAVID CUTHELL Wed 4:15-6:05 ICC 206
BORDERS IDEOLOGY AND IDENTITY
1.YOL
2.PROPAGANDA
IDENTITY IN A RURAL SETTING
3.WAITING FOR THE CLOUDS/BULUTLARI BEKLERKEN
4.TIMES AND WINDS/FIVE TIMES/BES VAKIT
TRANSPORTED IDENTITIES IN AN URBAN SETTING
5.ESKIYA/BANDIT
6.BRIDE/GELIN
IDENTITY AND MARGINALIZATION
7.SOMERSAULT IN A COFFIN/TABUTTA ROVESATA
8.TAKVA
IDENTITIES OF REAL AND ASSUMED FAMILIES
9.FATHER AND SON/BABAM VE OGLUM
10.HOKKABAZ
DUAL IDENTITIES OF EU TURKS
11.EDGE OF HEAVEN -or- HEAD ON
__________________________________
SOURCES
Click to get a PDF of Turkish Cinema History 1897-2006
The Ten Best Turkish Films of All Time (2003 Poll)
__________________________________
FALL 2008 Articles
1. The Russian Monument at Ayastefanos (San Stefano): Between Defeat and Revenge, Remembering and Forgetting Dilek kaya Mutlu
2. Becoming Undone: Contesting Nationalisms in Contemporary Turkish Popular Cinema Gokcen Karanfil
2. Becoming Undone: Contesting Nationalisms in Contemporary Turkish Popular Cinema Gokcen Karanfil
3. Turkish Cinema in the New Europe Angelica Fenner
4. Screening identities at and beyond Europe’s borders Paul Cooke , Rob Stone
5. Istanbul Film 2005 By N. Buket Cengiz
6. No place like home? Or impossible homecomings in the films of Fatih Akin Daniela Berghahn
http://www.box.net/shared/brc0dtvny6
7. Deep nation
__________________________________
FALL 2007 Articles
PDF File 1
On Film narrative and Narrative meaning / George Wilson
Notes on Spectator Emotion and Ideological Film Criticism /Carl Plantinga
PDF File 2
The Matrix of Visual Culture/ Patricia Pisters
On Film narrative and Narrative meaning / George Wilson
Notes on Spectator Emotion and Ideological Film Criticism /Carl Plantinga
PDF File 2
The Matrix of Visual Culture/ Patricia Pisters
Chapter 6 (de)Terrorialising Forces of the Sound Machine
PDF File 3
Questions of Genre/ Steve Neale
Towards a Third Cinema/ Fernando Solanas and Octavio Gettino
PDF File 4
Deleuze’s Toolbox and Glossary to Cinema 1 and Cinema 2
PDF File 5
Remapping World Cinema / Identitiy, culture and politics in film Towards a positive definition of World Cinema/Lucia Nagip Consuming 'Bollywood' in the global age: the stange case of 'unfine' world cinema/Kushik Bhaumik
PDF File 6
The Real Gaze: Film Theory after Lacan Introduction Todd McGowan
PDF File 3
Questions of Genre/ Steve Neale
Towards a Third Cinema/ Fernando Solanas and Octavio Gettino
PDF File 4
Deleuze’s Toolbox and Glossary to Cinema 1 and Cinema 2
PDF File 5
Remapping World Cinema / Identitiy, culture and politics in film Towards a positive definition of World Cinema/Lucia Nagip Consuming 'Bollywood' in the global age: the stange case of 'unfine' world cinema/Kushik Bhaumik
PDF File 6
The Real Gaze: Film Theory after Lacan Introduction Todd McGowan
Monday, August 18, 2008
Locarno Film Festival 2008
Mexican film-maker Enrique Rivero on Saturday took home the top prize of Switzerland's Locarno Film Festival with his film "Parque Via," about a man who has put himself in voluntary seclusion.
The special jury prize went to "33 Scenes from Life," by Polish Malgoska Szumowska, exploring the angst of a young woman coping with her mother's illness. The award for best direction was handed to Canadian Denis Cote for "Elle veut le chaos." Meanwhile, the public's pick for best film went to British filmmaker Garth Jenning's "Son of Rambow," a comedy about two adolescents trying to remake the film "Rambo." Illaria Occhini was tapped best actress for her role in "Mar Nero," while Tayanc Ayaydin took best actor for his performance in "The Market - A Tale of Trade."
Turkish films in Locarno Film Festival Competition
With 17 films confirmed to date, from 16 different countries, the selection for 2008 reflects the great diversity of current cinema – note the presence of an Irish filmmaker in competition for the first time since 1982, and a first film from Turkey, a country absent from the competition for nine years. The 2008 selection once again gives pride of place to young auteurs, with no less than 6 first films, and 4 second films. But discoveries are also measured in terms of what is entirely new, and this year there are 12 world and 5 international premières.
The 2008 competition is also distinguished by the recurrence of stories marked by economic and social themes. British filmmaker Ben Hopkins, noted for Simon Magus and The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz, delivers a fable of modern times about money and commerce, filmed in Turkey with local actors "The Market – A Tale of Trade."
SONBAHAR (Autumn)
Acquired for world sales during the festival, by Medialuna.
by Özcan Alper – Turkey/Germany – 2008 – 106 min.
with Onur Saylak Yusuf, Megi Koboladze Eka, R. Gulefer Yenigul, Serkan Keskin, Nini
Levaja Production: Kusey Film Production Co–productions: Film Fabrik Spiel-und Dokumentarfilmproduktion International Première – First Film
THE MARKET – A TALE OF TRADE (PAZAR - BIR TICARET MASALI)
by Ben Hopkins – Germany/Great Britain/Turkey/Kazakhstan – 2007 – 93 min.
with Tayanç Ayaydin, Genco Erkal, Senay Aydin, Hakan Sahin, Rojin
Production: Flying Moon Productions International Sales: The Works International
World Première
The special jury prize went to "33 Scenes from Life," by Polish Malgoska Szumowska, exploring the angst of a young woman coping with her mother's illness. The award for best direction was handed to Canadian Denis Cote for "Elle veut le chaos." Meanwhile, the public's pick for best film went to British filmmaker Garth Jenning's "Son of Rambow," a comedy about two adolescents trying to remake the film "Rambo." Illaria Occhini was tapped best actress for her role in "Mar Nero," while Tayanc Ayaydin took best actor for his performance in "The Market - A Tale of Trade."
Turkish films in Locarno Film Festival Competition
With 17 films confirmed to date, from 16 different countries, the selection for 2008 reflects the great diversity of current cinema – note the presence of an Irish filmmaker in competition for the first time since 1982, and a first film from Turkey, a country absent from the competition for nine years. The 2008 selection once again gives pride of place to young auteurs, with no less than 6 first films, and 4 second films. But discoveries are also measured in terms of what is entirely new, and this year there are 12 world and 5 international premières.
The 2008 competition is also distinguished by the recurrence of stories marked by economic and social themes. British filmmaker Ben Hopkins, noted for Simon Magus and The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz, delivers a fable of modern times about money and commerce, filmed in Turkey with local actors "The Market – A Tale of Trade."
SONBAHAR (Autumn)
Acquired for world sales during the festival, by Medialuna.
by Özcan Alper – Turkey/Germany – 2008 – 106 min.
with Onur Saylak Yusuf, Megi Koboladze Eka, R. Gulefer Yenigul, Serkan Keskin, Nini
Levaja Production: Kusey Film Production Co–productions: Film Fabrik Spiel-und Dokumentarfilmproduktion International Première – First Film
THE MARKET – A TALE OF TRADE (PAZAR - BIR TICARET MASALI)
by Ben Hopkins – Germany/Great Britain/Turkey/Kazakhstan – 2007 – 93 min.
with Tayanç Ayaydin, Genco Erkal, Senay Aydin, Hakan Sahin, Rojin
Production: Flying Moon Productions International Sales: The Works International
World Première
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Autumn (Sonbahar) by Ozcan Almer
Autumn (Sonbahar)
Dan Fainaru in Locarno
06 Aug 2008 17:20
Dir: Ozcan Almer. Turkey 2008. 100 mins.
An auspicious debut from Turkish helmer Ozcan Alper, Autumn features a low-key, uneventful story which moves along slowly, offering a sad elegy not just for a pointlessly-lost youth, but a whole set of ideals that have soured – with the plot growing darker and more desperate as the season shifts into winter.
This is more of an intense personal statement than Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and…Spring, but the comparison begs to be made not just because of the title, but because nature here gives the film a powerful dramatic backdrop, and, in the absence of much dialogue, also pushes the narrative along. Festivals will love this, playing as it does into the Turkish arthouse emergence, and specialty play could follow, although admittedly Autumn does have considerable commercial limitations.
Shot in a wild, untamed mountainous region of the North of Turkey, close to the Black Sea and the Georgian border, Autumn uses the stunning primeval landscape, shot at different times of the day and night and in differing conditions, to underline a drama the script seems eager to keep smouldering out of eyesight.
Released from prison after 10 years for demonstrating against the government, with his lungs barely functioning after a series of hunger strikes, Yusuf (Onur Saylak) has nowhere to go but back to his home in a remote village in the mountains. There, he lives in a small wooden shack with his old mother, left alone after the death of his father and the departure of his sister. Falling into an almost catatonic state of apathy, coughing but never revealing the exact state of his health, Yusuf occasionally helps a small boy who occasionally comes around with his homework.
Yusuf's only friend is Mikhail, the married village carpenter, who has never mustered enough courage to look for something better elsewhere. He soon discovers that all his rebellious university comrades have all settled down and forgotten their youthful idealism.
One day he meets Eka (Megi Koboladze), a woman who has come across the border from nearby Batum to work as a prostitute and send some money home to her mother and the child she left behind. A strange, mostly mute relationship is established between the two of them. He reminds her of heroes in the Russian novels she loves to read, and their sadly laconic encounters end one night in something that might be called an act of love or perhaps just a mutual act of mercy.
Beyond the personal tragedy of a man who has nothing to look forward to there is also, lurking in the shadows but pretty easy to see, the bitter deception of the socialist dream.
Viewers unprepared to constantly read between lines here are sure to be irked by Autumn's slow, undemonstrative pace. Mighty natural scenery compensates for much of the inactivity, helping to establish the mood, and if occasional flashbacks into Yusuf's city past do jar the pastoral atmosphere, they are sparingly and effectively used. The acting, as everything else, is kept on the minimalist side; implying rather than showing emotions.
Production companies/international sales
Kuzey Film Productions
+90 212 252 3605
Producers
F. Sercan Akar
Screenplay
Ozcan Alper
Director of photography
Feza Caldiran
Production designer
Canan Cayir
Editor
Thomas Balkenhol
Main Cast
Onur Saylak
Megi Koboladze
Gulefer Yenigul
Serkan Keskin
Nino Lejava
Friday, July 25, 2008
Heart of Two Nations by Nouritza Matossian
Heart of Two Nations: Hrant Dink
Turkey
2007, 40min.
Prod./Dir.: Nouritza Matossian, Dir. of Phot.: Tolga Aksac, Garo Berberian, Nouritza Matossian, Levent Kurumlu, Compos.: Mannik Grigorian, Hagop Matossian, Rolf Gehlhaar, MEG Recordings, Edit.: Levent Kurumlu, Jonathan Stokes.
Production Company
Tarmak Films
Address: Unit 2002, Spitfire Studios, 63-71 Collier Street, London, N1 9BE, UK
Tel/Fax: +44(0)20 7713 0070
www.tarmakfilms.com
Nouritza Matossian (born 1945) is an Armenian writer, actress, broadcaster and human rights activist. She writes on the arts, contemporary music, history and Armenia.
Matossian published the first biography and critical study of the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, the source book on his life, architecture and music based on ten years' collaboration with him. She later adapted it into a 50-minute documentary for BBC2, entitled Something Rich and Strange.
Matossian's 1998 book Black Angel, A Life of Arshile Gorky was written after twenty years' research. Ararat, the award-winning film by Atom Egoyan and Miramax, was partly inspired by Black Angel. She acted as consultant to Egoyan who modelled the female lead role Ani on her. Matossian also wrote and performs a solo show on Gorky's life from the viewpoint of his four beloved women with images and music. It has been produced worldwide over 80 times at venues including the Barbican, Tate Modern, London, New York, Los Angeles, the Edinburgh Festival, Cyprus, Paris, Lebanon, Iran, Romania and Georgia. In Armenia she performed it simultaneously in two languages.
Matossian broadcasts on the BBC and contributes to several newspapers and magazines, including The Independent, The Guardian, The Economist, and The Observer. She was Honorary Cultural Attache for the Armenian Embassy in London from 1991-2000.
She spent her childhood in Cyprus with her Armenian family. Educated in England, she graduated with Honours in Philosophy (B.Phil) from Bedford College, University of London, then studied music, theatre and mime in Dartington and Paris; she has a command of nine languages.
Turkey
2007, 40min.
Prod./Dir.: Nouritza Matossian, Dir. of Phot.: Tolga Aksac, Garo Berberian, Nouritza Matossian, Levent Kurumlu, Compos.: Mannik Grigorian, Hagop Matossian, Rolf Gehlhaar, MEG Recordings, Edit.: Levent Kurumlu, Jonathan Stokes.
Production Company
Tarmak Films
Address: Unit 2002, Spitfire Studios, 63-71 Collier Street, London, N1 9BE, UK
Tel/Fax: +44(0)20 7713 0070
www.tarmakfilms.com
Nouritza Matossian (born 1945) is an Armenian writer, actress, broadcaster and human rights activist. She writes on the arts, contemporary music, history and Armenia.
Matossian published the first biography and critical study of the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, the source book on his life, architecture and music based on ten years' collaboration with him. She later adapted it into a 50-minute documentary for BBC2, entitled Something Rich and Strange.
Matossian's 1998 book Black Angel, A Life of Arshile Gorky was written after twenty years' research. Ararat, the award-winning film by Atom Egoyan and Miramax, was partly inspired by Black Angel. She acted as consultant to Egoyan who modelled the female lead role Ani on her. Matossian also wrote and performs a solo show on Gorky's life from the viewpoint of his four beloved women with images and music. It has been produced worldwide over 80 times at venues including the Barbican, Tate Modern, London, New York, Los Angeles, the Edinburgh Festival, Cyprus, Paris, Lebanon, Iran, Romania and Georgia. In Armenia she performed it simultaneously in two languages.
Matossian broadcasts on the BBC and contributes to several newspapers and magazines, including The Independent, The Guardian, The Economist, and The Observer. She was Honorary Cultural Attache for the Armenian Embassy in London from 1991-2000.
She spent her childhood in Cyprus with her Armenian family. Educated in England, she graduated with Honours in Philosophy (B.Phil) from Bedford College, University of London, then studied music, theatre and mime in Dartington and Paris; she has a command of nine languages.
Azize Tan in Golden Apricot 2008 Jury
Jury of the Golden Apricot 2008 Feature Section
Dariush Mehrjui (Iran)
As an Iranian New Wave cinema icon, Mehrjui is regarded to be one of the intellectual directors. Dariush Mehrjui was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1939. As an adult, he moved to the United States and entered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Department of Cinema. He switched his major to philosophy and graduated from UCLA in 1964. Returning to Iran in 1965, he almost immediately embarked on a filmmaking career. He made his debut in 1966 with Diamond 33. His second featured film, Cow (1969), brought him national and international recognition. In 1971, the film was smuggled out of Iran and submitted to the Venice IFF, where, without programming or subtitles, it became the largest event of that year's festival. The film was a turning point in the history of Iranian cinema. The public received it with great enthusiasm, despite the fact that it had ignored all the traditional elements of box office attraction. In 1973 Mehrjui began directing what was to be his most acclaimed film. The Cycle was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture but encountered opposition from the Iranian medical establishment and was banned from release until 1977. It was universally admired abroad. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin IFF in 1978. In 1981, he traveled to Paris and remained there for several years, during which time he made a feature-length semi-documentary for French TV, Voyage au Pays de Rimbaud (1983). Feeling homesick, he returned to Iran to film The Tenants (1986), a comedy of conflict between apartment tenants and a realtor seeking to throw them out. In Hamoun (1989), a portrait of an intellectual whose life is falling apart, Mehrjui sought to depict his generation's post-revolutionary turn from politics to mysticism. The '90s also found Mehrjui releasing films dealing with women's issues. Banoo (1991, released in 1998) more or less brought Luis Buñuel's Viridiana to Iran. Sara (1993) did the same for Ibsen's A Doll's House. Pari (1995), a transplanting of Salinger's Franny and Zooey, attracted the attention - and the threat of a lawsuit - from the reclusive author. Leila (1996) was all Mehrjui's own and the first to receive any sort of wide theatrical release in the West. The story of a marriage undone by infertility and a meddling mother-in-law, it earned Mehrjui raves. Outside of festivals and a career-spanning retrospective by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in late 1998, his films remain largely unseen outside Iran, an oversight that will hopefully be corrected with the passing of time.
Ulrich Seidl (Austria)
Born November 24, 1952 in Vienna. Ulrich Seidl is the director of numerous award-winning documentaries such as Jesus, You Know, Models and Animal Love. His work methods, achieving the greatest possible authenticity and showing people in the most solitary and personal moments, has aroused intense debate. His first fiction feature, Dog Days, won the Grand Jury Special Prize at the 2001 Venice IFF. Seidl’s second feature film Import/Export has been sold to 20 countries. The film has won three prizes (Bangkok, Golden Apricot – Yerevan (Armenia) and Palic Tower (for the best acting ensemble Palic (Serbien). The film has been invited to about 80 festivals so far: for example Munique, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem, Sarajevo, Toronto, London, Kopenhagen, Sao Paolo, Seoul. Two retrospetives (in La Rochelle and Sarajevo) have shown Ulrich Seidls previous work, two further retros in Belgium and Sweden.
Goran Paskalevic (Serbia)
Born in 1947 in Belgrade, one of the most distinguished directors from the former Yugoslavia, is a member of the so-called “Prague school” of FAMU graduates. He became known for his short documentaries, but it was his feature films which classed him among leading European directors, whose style, themes and tragicomic aura bore traces of the influence of the Czech New Wave. He received international recognition particularly for his films Beach Guard in Winter (1976), Special Treatment (1980 – Golden Globe nomination), Twilight Time (1983 – Main Prize at the Chicago IFF), The Elusive Summer of ‘68 (1984), Guardian Angel (1987), Time of Miracles (1989), The Powder Keg (1998 – FIPRESCI prize at the Venice IFF), How Harry Became a Tree (2001) and Midwinter Night’s Dream (2004 – Grand Jury Prize at the San Sebastian IFF). His new film The Optimists was premiered in the autumn of 2006.
Azize Tan (Turkey)
Born in 1971 in Istanbul. She received her MA degree from Bosphorus University in Istanbul. She works for the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts organizing five international festivals (Film, Theatre, Music, Jazz and Biennial) since 1993. She worked as the coordinator of the 5th, 6th and 7th Istanbul Biennials and became the deputy director of the Istanbul IFF in 2003. She is the director of the Istanbul IFF since 2006. She also organizes the Istanbul Autumn Film Week for the last seven years. She is a member of NETPAC and Asia Pacific Screen Awards Nominations Council.
Ashot Adamyan (Armenia)
Born in 1953 in Yerevan. Adamyan studied at the Department of Architecture, the Vocational School after Alexander Tamanyan in 1968-1972. In 1972-1974 Adamyan served in the Soviet Army. He graduated from the Department of Direction, School of Culture, the Yerevan Pedagogical University (class of Henrik Malyan) in 1979. Adamyan worked as an actor, stage director and artistic manager in the Theater after Henrik Malyan from 1981 to 1998. In 1988-1991 Adamyan took the Advanced Courses for Film Directors in Moscow (the class of Rolan Bykov). Adamyan is a cinema actor beginning 1978 having played in more than two dozens of films including characters as noticeable as that of Torik (in A Piece of the Sky [Ktor my yerkinq] directed by Henrik Malyan), Oberon (The Song of the Old Days [Hin oreri yergy] by Albert Mkrtchyan) and the Driver ( Calendar by Atom Egoyan).
Dariush Mehrjui (Iran)
As an Iranian New Wave cinema icon, Mehrjui is regarded to be one of the intellectual directors. Dariush Mehrjui was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1939. As an adult, he moved to the United States and entered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Department of Cinema. He switched his major to philosophy and graduated from UCLA in 1964. Returning to Iran in 1965, he almost immediately embarked on a filmmaking career. He made his debut in 1966 with Diamond 33. His second featured film, Cow (1969), brought him national and international recognition. In 1971, the film was smuggled out of Iran and submitted to the Venice IFF, where, without programming or subtitles, it became the largest event of that year's festival. The film was a turning point in the history of Iranian cinema. The public received it with great enthusiasm, despite the fact that it had ignored all the traditional elements of box office attraction. In 1973 Mehrjui began directing what was to be his most acclaimed film. The Cycle was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture but encountered opposition from the Iranian medical establishment and was banned from release until 1977. It was universally admired abroad. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin IFF in 1978. In 1981, he traveled to Paris and remained there for several years, during which time he made a feature-length semi-documentary for French TV, Voyage au Pays de Rimbaud (1983). Feeling homesick, he returned to Iran to film The Tenants (1986), a comedy of conflict between apartment tenants and a realtor seeking to throw them out. In Hamoun (1989), a portrait of an intellectual whose life is falling apart, Mehrjui sought to depict his generation's post-revolutionary turn from politics to mysticism. The '90s also found Mehrjui releasing films dealing with women's issues. Banoo (1991, released in 1998) more or less brought Luis Buñuel's Viridiana to Iran. Sara (1993) did the same for Ibsen's A Doll's House. Pari (1995), a transplanting of Salinger's Franny and Zooey, attracted the attention - and the threat of a lawsuit - from the reclusive author. Leila (1996) was all Mehrjui's own and the first to receive any sort of wide theatrical release in the West. The story of a marriage undone by infertility and a meddling mother-in-law, it earned Mehrjui raves. Outside of festivals and a career-spanning retrospective by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in late 1998, his films remain largely unseen outside Iran, an oversight that will hopefully be corrected with the passing of time.
Ulrich Seidl (Austria)
Born November 24, 1952 in Vienna. Ulrich Seidl is the director of numerous award-winning documentaries such as Jesus, You Know, Models and Animal Love. His work methods, achieving the greatest possible authenticity and showing people in the most solitary and personal moments, has aroused intense debate. His first fiction feature, Dog Days, won the Grand Jury Special Prize at the 2001 Venice IFF. Seidl’s second feature film Import/Export has been sold to 20 countries. The film has won three prizes (Bangkok, Golden Apricot – Yerevan (Armenia) and Palic Tower (for the best acting ensemble Palic (Serbien). The film has been invited to about 80 festivals so far: for example Munique, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem, Sarajevo, Toronto, London, Kopenhagen, Sao Paolo, Seoul. Two retrospetives (in La Rochelle and Sarajevo) have shown Ulrich Seidls previous work, two further retros in Belgium and Sweden.
Goran Paskalevic (Serbia)
Born in 1947 in Belgrade, one of the most distinguished directors from the former Yugoslavia, is a member of the so-called “Prague school” of FAMU graduates. He became known for his short documentaries, but it was his feature films which classed him among leading European directors, whose style, themes and tragicomic aura bore traces of the influence of the Czech New Wave. He received international recognition particularly for his films Beach Guard in Winter (1976), Special Treatment (1980 – Golden Globe nomination), Twilight Time (1983 – Main Prize at the Chicago IFF), The Elusive Summer of ‘68 (1984), Guardian Angel (1987), Time of Miracles (1989), The Powder Keg (1998 – FIPRESCI prize at the Venice IFF), How Harry Became a Tree (2001) and Midwinter Night’s Dream (2004 – Grand Jury Prize at the San Sebastian IFF). His new film The Optimists was premiered in the autumn of 2006.
Azize Tan (Turkey)
Born in 1971 in Istanbul. She received her MA degree from Bosphorus University in Istanbul. She works for the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts organizing five international festivals (Film, Theatre, Music, Jazz and Biennial) since 1993. She worked as the coordinator of the 5th, 6th and 7th Istanbul Biennials and became the deputy director of the Istanbul IFF in 2003. She is the director of the Istanbul IFF since 2006. She also organizes the Istanbul Autumn Film Week for the last seven years. She is a member of NETPAC and Asia Pacific Screen Awards Nominations Council.
Ashot Adamyan (Armenia)
Born in 1953 in Yerevan. Adamyan studied at the Department of Architecture, the Vocational School after Alexander Tamanyan in 1968-1972. In 1972-1974 Adamyan served in the Soviet Army. He graduated from the Department of Direction, School of Culture, the Yerevan Pedagogical University (class of Henrik Malyan) in 1979. Adamyan worked as an actor, stage director and artistic manager in the Theater after Henrik Malyan from 1981 to 1998. In 1988-1991 Adamyan took the Advanced Courses for Film Directors in Moscow (the class of Rolan Bykov). Adamyan is a cinema actor beginning 1978 having played in more than two dozens of films including characters as noticeable as that of Torik (in A Piece of the Sky [Ktor my yerkinq] directed by Henrik Malyan), Oberon (The Song of the Old Days [Hin oreri yergy] by Albert Mkrtchyan) and the Driver ( Calendar by Atom Egoyan).
Monday, July 21, 2008
Best Director Awart to N.B.Ceylan at Cinefan 2008
Best Director
"Nuri Bilge Ceylan For the film Three Monkeys For his cinematic treatment of intense internal human conflicts in difficult situations and for his deep understanding of human nature and excellent handling of actors."
"Nuri Bilge Ceylan For the film Three Monkeys For his cinematic treatment of intense internal human conflicts in difficult situations and for his deep understanding of human nature and excellent handling of actors."
In-Tolerance Award to Handan Ipekci
Cinefan 2008 In-Tolerance Award
Best Film Award
Hidden Faces by Handan Ipekci from Turkey. For dealing with the pressing issue of 'honour killings' with a well-crafted and profound cinematic language that can reach large audiences
Best Film Award
Hidden Faces by Handan Ipekci from Turkey. For dealing with the pressing issue of 'honour killings' with a well-crafted and profound cinematic language that can reach large audiences
Gönül Dönmez-Colin in Cinefan 2008 Jury
The festival this year comprises a large number of electric and innovative sections. The Asian competition has been broadened to include Arab cinema. The Indian Competition consists of films made in the last one year in the country, while a new competition has been introduced for First Films. The regular sections include Cross-Cultural Encounters (films that tackle cross-cultural themes), Frescoes (recent films from Asian and Arab countries), Indian Mosaic (the best of the previous year�s productions in India but not in competition) and In-Tolerance (films that reflect on the intolerance of our times and hold a mirror to the past and present)
In-Tolerance Jury Members:
Saeed Ebrahimifar - Actor, director, producer and screenwriter Saeed Ebrahimifar was born in Tehran in 1956. He studied civil engineering and communication in the US. His cinematic career began in 1984 and he made his first feature, Pomogranates and Cane, in 1989. A poet of cinema, his film Lonesome Trees shared the Special Jury Award with Making Of at Osian’s-Cinefan last year.
Bappaditya Bandopadhyay - Born in 1969, award-winning filmmaker Bappaditya Bandopadhyay graduated in Sociology from Calcutta University. In 2003, he received the Most Prominent Director Award from the Bengal Film Journalists Association, while his leading actress, Debashree Roy won the Kalakar Award in Bengal for her performance in Colours of Hunger. He writes regularly on cinema and is also a poet of repute. His award-winning films, Barbed Wire, Devaki and Our Time have had their world premieres in Osian’s-Cinefan.
Gonul Donmez-Colin - Writer, critic, researcher and lecturer, Gönül Dönmez-Colin studied at the Universities of Istanbul, Concordia and McGill. She has taught in Montreal and Hong Kong, having done field research in Iran, Turkey, India and Central Asia. She is the author of Women, Islam and Cinema, Cinemas of North Africa and Central Asia (ed.), and Turkish Cinema and Politics of Identity. She has written widely on the cinemas of Central Asia and Greece, been on juries, curated programmes on national cinemas, and is the Artistic Advisor of Mannheim-Heidelberg and the Kerala International Film Festivals.
In-Tolerance Jury Members:
Saeed Ebrahimifar - Actor, director, producer and screenwriter Saeed Ebrahimifar was born in Tehran in 1956. He studied civil engineering and communication in the US. His cinematic career began in 1984 and he made his first feature, Pomogranates and Cane, in 1989. A poet of cinema, his film Lonesome Trees shared the Special Jury Award with Making Of at Osian’s-Cinefan last year.
Bappaditya Bandopadhyay - Born in 1969, award-winning filmmaker Bappaditya Bandopadhyay graduated in Sociology from Calcutta University. In 2003, he received the Most Prominent Director Award from the Bengal Film Journalists Association, while his leading actress, Debashree Roy won the Kalakar Award in Bengal for her performance in Colours of Hunger. He writes regularly on cinema and is also a poet of repute. His award-winning films, Barbed Wire, Devaki and Our Time have had their world premieres in Osian’s-Cinefan.
Gonul Donmez-Colin - Writer, critic, researcher and lecturer, Gönül Dönmez-Colin studied at the Universities of Istanbul, Concordia and McGill. She has taught in Montreal and Hong Kong, having done field research in Iran, Turkey, India and Central Asia. She is the author of Women, Islam and Cinema, Cinemas of North Africa and Central Asia (ed.), and Turkish Cinema and Politics of Identity. She has written widely on the cinemas of Central Asia and Greece, been on juries, curated programmes on national cinemas, and is the Artistic Advisor of Mannheim-Heidelberg and the Kerala International Film Festivals.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
N.B.Ceylan to head Sarajevo 14 Jury
Nuri Bilge Ceylan President of the Jury
30.5.2008
The 14th Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 15-23) has announced that Cannes Critics Week Grand Prix winner Snow by Bosnian Aida Begic will officially open the festival at the Heineken Open Air with capacity of 3,000 seats.
Other films to screen at the prestigious venue include Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Three Monkeys. Ceylan will also serve as the president of the jury which will also be comprised of British director Hugh Hudson, Croatian actress Marija Skaricic (Das Fraulein, the best film of Sarajevo 2006 and best actress in Sarajevo 2004 for That Beautiful Night In Split), founder and director of Match Factory Michael Weber, and Deborah Young, the artistic director of Taormina Film Festival. Ceylan, Leigh, Terry George and Slavoj Zizek, influential Slovenian phylosopher, sociologist and critic, will be among the lecturers at the second Sarajevo Talent Campus.
In its 14th edition and within its Competition Programme – Features, the Sarajevo Film Festival will present the best films from the region. This year again, the Competition Programme Jury will include some of the leading, internationally recognised filmmakers and film professionals, who will decide on the following awards:
• Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film
• Special Jury Award
• Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress
• Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor
NURI BILGE CEYLAN, DIRECTOR, WRITER, TURKEY
Nuri Bilge Ceylan is one of the most relevant film authors of our time. He is a versatile author who selects his topics most carefully. Critics usually describe his films as realistic images of our world today, particularly because his characters are almost always the ‘ordinary people’ whose lives and stories the audience finds easy to identify with. His work has received numerous prestigious awards from leading festivals across the world – Berlin, Cannes, Chicago, San Sebastian... His first short film KOZA was screened at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and two years later his feature debut KASABA was received with considerable success, leading Ceylan to numerous film festivals. His next film, CLOUDS OF MAY, received the FIPRESCI European Film Award, and success continued with his film UZAK. The awards this film won included the Jury Grand Prix and the France Culture Award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. He also won the FIPRESCI award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival for his film CLIMATES, which also won the international film critics and film professionals’ award, as well as five awards at the Antalya Film Festival the same year. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, his latest feature, THREE MONKEYS, won him the Best Director Award.
HUGH HUDSON,DIRECTOR, UK
Hugh Hudson is the director of the cult film CHARIOTS OF FIRE which won as many as four Academy Awards. Before this extraordinary success with his debut feature, Hudson had directed numerous outstanding documentaries. After that, in 1970 he teamed up with Ridley Scott, with whom he directed a host of TV commercials. Hugh Hudson’s work includes titles such as REVOLUTION, which starred Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland and Nastassja Kinski, LOST ANGELS with Donald Sutherland, and I DREAMED OF AMERICA with Kim Basinger, Vincent Perez, Daniel Craig, MY LIFE SO FAR with Colin Firth...
MARIJA ŠKARIČIĆ, ACTRESS, CROATIA
Marija Škaričić is one of the most successful Croatian actresses of the younger generation. His role in Arsen Ostojić’s film THAT BEAUTIFUL NIGHT IN SPLIT won her the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress at the 10th SFF. Two years later she was again the winner of the Best Actress Award, and the Heart of Sarajevo was won with her role in Andrea Staka’s FRAULEIN. She delivered notable roles in a number of films produced in Croatia – SALESLADY WANTS TO GO TO THE COAST, WHAT’S A MAN WITHOUT A MOUSTACHE, ALBERT EINSTEIN’S GREATEST MISTAKE, SOCIETY OF JESUS, 100 MINUTES OF GLORY, IT’S NOT BAD...
MICHAEL WEBER, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF MATCH FACTORY, GERMANY
Michael Weber is the founder and director of one of the most successful world sales companies in Europe - Match Factory. Match Factory represents established authors as well as the new names in this form of art. Films represented by this renown company include some of the most highly awarded titles of the past two years: GRBAVICA by Jasmila Žbanić, THE EDGE OF HEAVEN by Fatih Akin, TAKVA by Ozer Kizilatan, YELLA by Christian Petzold, EL CUSTODIO by Rodrigo Moreno, MADEINUSA by Claudia Llose, TOUGH ENOUGH by Detlev Bucka, LOVE AND OTHER CRIMES by Stefan Arsenijević... At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Match Factory presented five films: WALTZ WITH BASHIR by Ari Folman, CLOUD 9 by Andreas Dresen, O'HORTEN by Bent Hamer, LIVERPOOL by Lisandro Alonso and TULIPAN by Sergey Dvortsevoy, which also won the Un Certain Regard award.
DEBORAH YOUNG,TAORMINA FILM FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, USA / ITALY
Deborah Young is Taormina Film Festival artistic director. Since 1980, she wrote film reviews for the Variety. Deborah Young is an American citizen, although she has been living in Rome for several years now. Presently she is the editor for Italy of New York magazine “Cineaste”. And since 2005 she has been an advisor for Tribeca Film Festival also in New York. She’s the artistic director of New Italian Cinema Events (N.I.C.E.), a showcase for new indie Italian cinema in New York, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Moscow. In 1988 she collaborated at the Venice Film Festival selections.
Dorsay to head Fipresci Jury in Sarajevo 14
FIPRESCI Prize at the 14th Sarajevo Film Festival
12.6.2008
Along with the Heart of Sarajevo Awards for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Special Jury Award and CICAE Prize, films of the Competition Programme – Feature Film of the 14th Sarajevo Film Festival, will also compete for the prestigious FIPRESCI Prize (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique).
The FIPRESCI Jury at the 14th SFF will include renowned film critics: Atilla Dorsay from Turkey (Sabah), Mike Goodridge from USA (Screen International) and László Kriston from Hungary (Magyar Hirlap, Vox Mozimagazin, Magyar Marancs, Mozinet).
The organisations of professional film critics and film journalists, established in different countries for the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests, constitute the International Federation of the Cinematographic Press (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique - FIPRESCI) - an institution founded on the 6th of June 1930.
The purpose of the International Film Critics Awards (the FIPRESCI Prize) is to promote film-art and to encourage new and young cinema.
The FIPRESCI Prize is awarded at international film festivals or at film festivals of particular importance including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, Pusan, Montreal, Toronto, London…
This year Sarajevo Film Festival joins this family of festivals that host the FIPRESCI Prize, presented by the renowned film critics.
12.6.2008
Along with the Heart of Sarajevo Awards for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Special Jury Award and CICAE Prize, films of the Competition Programme – Feature Film of the 14th Sarajevo Film Festival, will also compete for the prestigious FIPRESCI Prize (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique).
The FIPRESCI Jury at the 14th SFF will include renowned film critics: Atilla Dorsay from Turkey (Sabah), Mike Goodridge from USA (Screen International) and László Kriston from Hungary (Magyar Hirlap, Vox Mozimagazin, Magyar Marancs, Mozinet).
The organisations of professional film critics and film journalists, established in different countries for the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests, constitute the International Federation of the Cinematographic Press (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique - FIPRESCI) - an institution founded on the 6th of June 1930.
The purpose of the International Film Critics Awards (the FIPRESCI Prize) is to promote film-art and to encourage new and young cinema.
The FIPRESCI Prize is awarded at international film festivals or at film festivals of particular importance including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, Pusan, Montreal, Toronto, London…
This year Sarajevo Film Festival joins this family of festivals that host the FIPRESCI Prize, presented by the renowned film critics.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Turkish Director Fêted in Cannes, Ignored at Home
Turkish director, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, poses after winning Best Director prize at the Closing Ceremony of the 61st Cannes International Film Festival on May 25, 2008. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP / Getty Images
Tuesday, May. 27, 2008
Turkish Director Fêted in Cannes, Ignored at Home
By PELIN TURGUT/ISTANBUL
Celebrated Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan was awarded Best Director in Cannes on Sunday. Perhaps now Turks will finally go see his movies. Despite being heralded globally for his movie magic, Ceylan's films — slow-paced, poetic tales of individuals struggling against the bleak backdrop of modern Turkey — routinely flop back home. Distant, a previous Cannes competitor, was seen by just 20,000 people in Turkey — only one-fourth as many as saw it in France. His current Cannes winner, Three Monkeys, has yet to sell to Turkish TV, which has deemed it too arty.
It is true that Ceylan's films are never easy going, but in a country of 70 million, 20,000 viewers seems, well, a little pathetic. Are Turks a nation of cultural philistines? Critics bemoaning the dearth of interest in cultural fare (book sales are shrinking along with art-house film audiences) point to a brutal 1980 military coup as the start of this malaise. The generals ushered in an era of economic liberalization and anything-goes cowboy capitalism that rapidly transformed the country into a consumerist McHeaven. Turgut Ozal, who served as prime minister from 1983 to 1989 and as president from 1989 to 1993, famously declared that his dream was for Turkey to become "a little America." And he wasn't talking about liberty. Today, Turkey is home to Europe's youngest population, and one of the world's fastest growing consumer markets with brands like Starbucks, Topshop and Ikea booming. One brand manager told me that in his view, the country's shopping malls (60 new ones opening this year) are "paved with gold."
The buying binge is, of course, a worldwide phenomenon. But in Turkey, unlike similar developing countries like Brazil or India, it is underpinned by a deep distaste for the arts. After the 1980 coup, tens of thousands of leftists were imprisoned and often tortured. Newspapers and magazines were banned, politics was forbidden in schools and universities and free speech stifled by draconian laws, some of which are still on the books. With intellectualism effectively quashed, the end result was a cultural vacuum. Recovering has not been easy.
Then again, to give Turkish audiences their credit, maybe Ceylan's previous films were just really, really slow. "Viewers have become used to the fast-paced style of ads, music videos and news shows that jump from scene to scene; this manifests itself in an impatience towards films which tease their stories out slowly," says Firat Yucel, editor of the film magazine Altyazi.
If that's the case, they can take heart: Cannes award winner Three Monkeys is an engrossing tale of an Istanbul family torn apart by their secrets. In tone, if not style, it is a departure for Ceylan and has even been described as a thriller, albeit a meditative one. "Hopefully the Cannes charm might coax viewers into giving Ceylan a chance," says film critic Emrah Guler. And if that's not enough to get Turkish moviegoers to the theaters, the director stands in good company, with the likes of Woody Allen, of filmmakers embraced by the arty French but neglected at home.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Cannes |Three Monkeys (Uc Maymun) by Jonathan Romney
Three Monkeys (Uc Maymun) by Jonathan Romney in London
16 May 2008 07:15
Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Turkey-France-Italy. 2008. 109 mins.
An ostensibly routine noir-style psychological thriller vaults into the realms of high art in competition contender Three Monkeys. Cannes has been kind to Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan in the past, with Uzak and Climates establishing his auteur credentials here in 2003 and 2006. His new film represents a bold departure from his past style: it's best described as introspective melodrama, yet both visually and tonally, it's still quintessential Ceylan.
For the first time, Ceylan really involves himself in narrative complexity, spinning a subtly-twisty yarn with echoes of such crime writers as Simenon and James M. Cain. Three Monkeys will consolidate Ceylan's reputation among art-house cognoscenti, but should win him new fans too. Its genre bent should give it a niche crossover appeal for export, in ways that Uzak and Climates never quite reached.
The film's theme, as with so much prime noir, is guilt, and the people who either accept it or try to slough it off: the title allusion is to the proverbial apes of 'see/hear/speak no evil' fame. The story starts in moody, night-soaked fashion, with a middle-aged man dozing at the wheel of his car before causing a hit-and-run accident (it's typical of the film's elliptical approach that the victim remains unknown).
The perpetrator is Servet (Kesal), a politician who fears that the accident will affect his election chances. He therefore persuades his driver Eyüp (Bingöl, best known in Turkey as a folk singer) to take the rap, in exchange for a payoff that will keep his family financially secure. Eyüp goes to prison, while his teenage son Ismael (Sungar) strays into undefined bad company - presumably the reason for him coming home bloodied one night.
Hoping to help out her son, Eyüp's wife Hacer (Aslan) approaches Servet for a handout, and ends up getting more involved with him than she, or we, expected.
Some standard pulp-thriller tropes are tantalisingly spun out for the first hour, but the slyness of the narrative approach only becomes fully apparent after that. It's only then, for example, that Eyüp, newly released, fully enters the action as a player, the emphasis of the drama shifting disorientingly to him. And it's only after an hour that we discover that the couple have had another son, long dead, who haunts the story in a couple of enigmatic images, one a dream with vaguely Tarkovskian overtones.
Throughout, Ceylan and his co-writers - his wife Ebru Ceylan and actor Kesal - systematically withhold key information, keeping us as much out of the loop as his characters often are. Much of the film, crucially, revolves round the suspicions and anxieties of both father and son. Like previous Ceylan films, this one looks long and hard into the mysteries and self-destructive contradictions of the human heart, but the film's sombre, arguably pessimistic bent also finds room for Ceylan's blackly sardonic humour, embodied here by a running gag about an unintentionally eloquent cellphone ringtone.
Using HD video in steely, washed-out hues, Ceylan and DoP Tiryaki provide the beautifully composed cityscapes that have become the director's trademark, as well as facial studies that speak more eloquently about characters' conflicting emotions than the common run of close-ups. A gorgeous, digitally-manipulated final shot gives the film a troubling open ending that can only stir debate and send intrigued viewers back for a second viewing.
The only cavil is that the pacing gets a little slack in the final stretches, and - while it's the nature of a Ceylan film to be slow-burning - the smallest amount of trimming could well turn an exceptional film into a near-perfect one.
16 May 2008 07:15
Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Turkey-France-Italy. 2008. 109 mins.
An ostensibly routine noir-style psychological thriller vaults into the realms of high art in competition contender Three Monkeys. Cannes has been kind to Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan in the past, with Uzak and Climates establishing his auteur credentials here in 2003 and 2006. His new film represents a bold departure from his past style: it's best described as introspective melodrama, yet both visually and tonally, it's still quintessential Ceylan.
For the first time, Ceylan really involves himself in narrative complexity, spinning a subtly-twisty yarn with echoes of such crime writers as Simenon and James M. Cain. Three Monkeys will consolidate Ceylan's reputation among art-house cognoscenti, but should win him new fans too. Its genre bent should give it a niche crossover appeal for export, in ways that Uzak and Climates never quite reached.
The film's theme, as with so much prime noir, is guilt, and the people who either accept it or try to slough it off: the title allusion is to the proverbial apes of 'see/hear/speak no evil' fame. The story starts in moody, night-soaked fashion, with a middle-aged man dozing at the wheel of his car before causing a hit-and-run accident (it's typical of the film's elliptical approach that the victim remains unknown).
The perpetrator is Servet (Kesal), a politician who fears that the accident will affect his election chances. He therefore persuades his driver Eyüp (Bingöl, best known in Turkey as a folk singer) to take the rap, in exchange for a payoff that will keep his family financially secure. Eyüp goes to prison, while his teenage son Ismael (Sungar) strays into undefined bad company - presumably the reason for him coming home bloodied one night.
Hoping to help out her son, Eyüp's wife Hacer (Aslan) approaches Servet for a handout, and ends up getting more involved with him than she, or we, expected.
Some standard pulp-thriller tropes are tantalisingly spun out for the first hour, but the slyness of the narrative approach only becomes fully apparent after that. It's only then, for example, that Eyüp, newly released, fully enters the action as a player, the emphasis of the drama shifting disorientingly to him. And it's only after an hour that we discover that the couple have had another son, long dead, who haunts the story in a couple of enigmatic images, one a dream with vaguely Tarkovskian overtones.
Throughout, Ceylan and his co-writers - his wife Ebru Ceylan and actor Kesal - systematically withhold key information, keeping us as much out of the loop as his characters often are. Much of the film, crucially, revolves round the suspicions and anxieties of both father and son. Like previous Ceylan films, this one looks long and hard into the mysteries and self-destructive contradictions of the human heart, but the film's sombre, arguably pessimistic bent also finds room for Ceylan's blackly sardonic humour, embodied here by a running gag about an unintentionally eloquent cellphone ringtone.
Using HD video in steely, washed-out hues, Ceylan and DoP Tiryaki provide the beautifully composed cityscapes that have become the director's trademark, as well as facial studies that speak more eloquently about characters' conflicting emotions than the common run of close-ups. A gorgeous, digitally-manipulated final shot gives the film a troubling open ending that can only stir debate and send intrigued viewers back for a second viewing.
The only cavil is that the pacing gets a little slack in the final stretches, and - while it's the nature of a Ceylan film to be slow-burning - the smallest amount of trimming could well turn an exceptional film into a near-perfect one.
Cannes | From Turkey with love: return of one of Cannes favourite sons
From Turkey with love: return of one of Cannes favourite sons
CANNES, France (AFP) — One of Cannes' favourite film-makers, Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan, returned to the film festival offering a breather from hard-hitting movies on social themes with a highly personal family drama.
Ceylan, almost 40 and already winner of a batch of awards for his first four features, is regarded as one of the most distinctive film-makers of the last decade.
His latest offering, "Three Monkeys", a searing family tragedy revolving around jealousy, is his third appearance in competition at Cannes, where the movie is tipped as a front-runner among the 22 vying for the festival's prestigious Palme d'Or award.
"The film is about life, about many things, about the inner world," he said Thursday. "I don't make films on this or that as that is too didactic. And by the time I've ended a film the idea may have changed."
After running over a man at night, a politician running for election bribes his driver to claim responsibility for the accident. But while the man is in prison, the politician seduces the driver's wife, and her son , a young adult, sees it all.
Ceylan, maker of "Uzak" and "Climates", is a master of psychological subtlety and intimacy, shooting meticulously beautiful images helped by his use of high-definition digital video.
"Digital is easier to edit, cheaper and gives you more control over the level of acting," he told AFP. "My style is to have lots of material, I like to shoot the same scene several times, with an actor perhaps crying in one scene and then laughing in the next. Then I decide which I like best."
In "Three Monkeys", Ceylan focuses his camera strictly on the four characters, showing how the family opts to stick together by playing blind, deaf and dumb to problems that should in all logic split them apart.
"I find the family quite tragic in life, it's one of the most tragic things in life," he told AFP. "I suffered a lot from that. I feel that in a family what they live is a summary of society, of life.
"In life people often behave as if they didn't see, didn't hear, didn't say. That is how we protect ourselves so as not to suffer."
After two days of hard-hitting films focussing on global issues and social problems, Ceylan, along with France's first entry "A Christmas Tale", struck a different note, at the festival.
CANNES, France (AFP) — One of Cannes' favourite film-makers, Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan, returned to the film festival offering a breather from hard-hitting movies on social themes with a highly personal family drama.
Ceylan, almost 40 and already winner of a batch of awards for his first four features, is regarded as one of the most distinctive film-makers of the last decade.
His latest offering, "Three Monkeys", a searing family tragedy revolving around jealousy, is his third appearance in competition at Cannes, where the movie is tipped as a front-runner among the 22 vying for the festival's prestigious Palme d'Or award.
"The film is about life, about many things, about the inner world," he said Thursday. "I don't make films on this or that as that is too didactic. And by the time I've ended a film the idea may have changed."
After running over a man at night, a politician running for election bribes his driver to claim responsibility for the accident. But while the man is in prison, the politician seduces the driver's wife, and her son , a young adult, sees it all.
Ceylan, maker of "Uzak" and "Climates", is a master of psychological subtlety and intimacy, shooting meticulously beautiful images helped by his use of high-definition digital video.
"Digital is easier to edit, cheaper and gives you more control over the level of acting," he told AFP. "My style is to have lots of material, I like to shoot the same scene several times, with an actor perhaps crying in one scene and then laughing in the next. Then I decide which I like best."
In "Three Monkeys", Ceylan focuses his camera strictly on the four characters, showing how the family opts to stick together by playing blind, deaf and dumb to problems that should in all logic split them apart.
"I find the family quite tragic in life, it's one of the most tragic things in life," he told AFP. "I suffered a lot from that. I feel that in a family what they live is a summary of society, of life.
"In life people often behave as if they didn't see, didn't hear, didn't say. That is how we protect ourselves so as not to suffer."
After two days of hard-hitting films focussing on global issues and social problems, Ceylan, along with France's first entry "A Christmas Tale", struck a different note, at the festival.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Article | 'Three Monkeys' at present is toast of Cannes
I saw another picture today, "Three Monkeys" from the Turkish writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whose "Climates" remains one of the few masterworks I've seen in world cinema this new century. Ceylan's latest is visually extraordinary and often arresting, a simple tale of a blackmail arrangement that leads to adultery and horrific recriminations. I'm talking to Ceylan tomorrow, so more on this one later. With its exquisite sense of composition and color, to be sure, "Three Monkeys" proves that Ceylan is leading the vanguard when it comes to high-def digital video's expressive possibilities.
'Three Monkeys' at present is toast of Cannes by Michael Phillips
CANNES, France—The Cannes Film Festival is an international bazaar, and no single aspect of this cinematic kaleidoscope by the Mediterranean exemplifies its globalism better than the pavilions lining the beach behind the Palais. The Irish pavilion sits at one end, Portugal’s a few steps down. The Icelandic commission has its own releases and locations to promote, as does Brazil.
On Friday, under the sort of threatening skies the director himself favors on screen, I’m sitting in the Turkish Pavilion, drinking Turkish coffee with the Turkish writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. His fifth feature, the stunning “Three Monkeys,” is one of the widely acknowledged favorites in the opening days of the 61st Cannes.
The title chosen by Ceylan (pronounced JEY-lahn) refers to evils about which his characters choose not to hear, see or speak. Late one night, a politician falls asleep behind the wheel of his car on a country road. He strikes and kills a pedestrian and then coolly coerces one of his employers to take the rap for him and serve a nine-month prison sentence.
This arrangement initiates a string of deceptions, including a tryst between the politico (Ercan Kesal) and the wife, Hacer, (Hatice Aslan) of the fall guy (Yavuz Bingol). Their son (Ahmet Rifat Sungar) learns of the affair. When the son’s father comes home from prison, the turmoil so long buried in his family—another son has drowned years earlier—rises to the surface.
Growing up, Ceylan says, “my family life was really complicated. Fights, things like that. I lived for a long time, for instance, several families together. Very complicated, and many tragic and very painful memories.” Making films, he says, has its “consoling” side. It is a way of “trying to understand the dark side of my soul. I use all my memories; that’s my primary material. They make life more…standable? Tolerable, I think you say.”
Ceylan’s previous film, “Climates,” traced the dissolution of a relationship. Ceylan and his wife, Ebru, played the central couple, and Ceylan shot it on high-definition digital video. When “Climates” premiered two years ago at Cannes, the film’s astounding vibrancy struck many in attendance as the medium’s first masterwork shot in that format.
“Three Monkeys” clearly comes from the same director’s eye, but its palette—virtually denuded of color, except for splashes and blotches of dark red—is very different, placing the characters in what Ceylan calls “a specific, separate world of their own.”
“‘Climates’ was my first film in digital, so I was a bit afraid of trying certain things,” he says. “I was interested in protecting the values of the digital resolution and things like that. Which is nonsense. I don’t care about resolution anymore…I know now that after you shoot you can change your lighting completely, and in a very cheap studio, with the cinematographer, I modified colors and the lighting in the post-production. [When filming] I only want to concentrate on the actors and the story.”
There are moments in his latest picture where you sense Ceylan’s inability to let go of a particularly rich image, in which the characters, placed just so in an exquisitely realized frame, are dwarfed or suffocated by storm clouds, or an interior darkness. The director acknowledges he shot several different endings toying with different fates of the major characters.
Narrative lurches notwithstanding, “Three Monkeys” offers the kind of artistry rare in contemporary cinema. Little details linger in the mind, such as a knife on a cutting board, tipping slightly in the breeze. Ceylan gets wonderful suspense out of everyday things, such as a telltale cell phone ring-tone that wails to the tune of a vengeful Turkish pop ballad.
Most indelibly, the film’s brief but brilliant depictions of the dead son grip the audience like nothing else so far in this year’s Cannes festival.
Ceylan’s web site showcases his photography along with his filmmaking. Despite courting far-flung comparisons to director Michelangelo Antonioni, “Three Monkeys” suggests that a more apt comparison regarding Ceylan’s compositional leanings involves another photographer turned director, Stanley Kubrick. Ceylan, says actress Hatice Aslan, a fierce marvel as Hacer, “is like his photos; he’s very calm.” But there is a great deal roiling underneath the surface.
This quality distinguishes the texture of Anton Chekhov, Ceylan’s favorite writer. For his next project he may adapt Chekhov’s “My Wife” to a Turkish setting and, if so, the film will star his wife, Ebru.
That’s a maybe, mind. “I’m not the kind of director who has lots of projects waiting,” Ceylan says, with a laugh. “Making a film changes you, and after struggling with a film, I just…wait. I go through hating cinema for some time. And then, under the load of the images and ideas, I slowly begin to work.”
“Three Monkeys” will receive limited U.S. distribution sometime in 2008 or 2009.
'Three Monkeys' at present is toast of Cannes by Michael Phillips
CANNES, France—The Cannes Film Festival is an international bazaar, and no single aspect of this cinematic kaleidoscope by the Mediterranean exemplifies its globalism better than the pavilions lining the beach behind the Palais. The Irish pavilion sits at one end, Portugal’s a few steps down. The Icelandic commission has its own releases and locations to promote, as does Brazil.
On Friday, under the sort of threatening skies the director himself favors on screen, I’m sitting in the Turkish Pavilion, drinking Turkish coffee with the Turkish writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. His fifth feature, the stunning “Three Monkeys,” is one of the widely acknowledged favorites in the opening days of the 61st Cannes.
The title chosen by Ceylan (pronounced JEY-lahn) refers to evils about which his characters choose not to hear, see or speak. Late one night, a politician falls asleep behind the wheel of his car on a country road. He strikes and kills a pedestrian and then coolly coerces one of his employers to take the rap for him and serve a nine-month prison sentence.
This arrangement initiates a string of deceptions, including a tryst between the politico (Ercan Kesal) and the wife, Hacer, (Hatice Aslan) of the fall guy (Yavuz Bingol). Their son (Ahmet Rifat Sungar) learns of the affair. When the son’s father comes home from prison, the turmoil so long buried in his family—another son has drowned years earlier—rises to the surface.
Growing up, Ceylan says, “my family life was really complicated. Fights, things like that. I lived for a long time, for instance, several families together. Very complicated, and many tragic and very painful memories.” Making films, he says, has its “consoling” side. It is a way of “trying to understand the dark side of my soul. I use all my memories; that’s my primary material. They make life more…standable? Tolerable, I think you say.”
Ceylan’s previous film, “Climates,” traced the dissolution of a relationship. Ceylan and his wife, Ebru, played the central couple, and Ceylan shot it on high-definition digital video. When “Climates” premiered two years ago at Cannes, the film’s astounding vibrancy struck many in attendance as the medium’s first masterwork shot in that format.
“Three Monkeys” clearly comes from the same director’s eye, but its palette—virtually denuded of color, except for splashes and blotches of dark red—is very different, placing the characters in what Ceylan calls “a specific, separate world of their own.”
“‘Climates’ was my first film in digital, so I was a bit afraid of trying certain things,” he says. “I was interested in protecting the values of the digital resolution and things like that. Which is nonsense. I don’t care about resolution anymore…I know now that after you shoot you can change your lighting completely, and in a very cheap studio, with the cinematographer, I modified colors and the lighting in the post-production. [When filming] I only want to concentrate on the actors and the story.”
There are moments in his latest picture where you sense Ceylan’s inability to let go of a particularly rich image, in which the characters, placed just so in an exquisitely realized frame, are dwarfed or suffocated by storm clouds, or an interior darkness. The director acknowledges he shot several different endings toying with different fates of the major characters.
Narrative lurches notwithstanding, “Three Monkeys” offers the kind of artistry rare in contemporary cinema. Little details linger in the mind, such as a knife on a cutting board, tipping slightly in the breeze. Ceylan gets wonderful suspense out of everyday things, such as a telltale cell phone ring-tone that wails to the tune of a vengeful Turkish pop ballad.
Most indelibly, the film’s brief but brilliant depictions of the dead son grip the audience like nothing else so far in this year’s Cannes festival.
Ceylan’s web site showcases his photography along with his filmmaking. Despite courting far-flung comparisons to director Michelangelo Antonioni, “Three Monkeys” suggests that a more apt comparison regarding Ceylan’s compositional leanings involves another photographer turned director, Stanley Kubrick. Ceylan, says actress Hatice Aslan, a fierce marvel as Hacer, “is like his photos; he’s very calm.” But there is a great deal roiling underneath the surface.
This quality distinguishes the texture of Anton Chekhov, Ceylan’s favorite writer. For his next project he may adapt Chekhov’s “My Wife” to a Turkish setting and, if so, the film will star his wife, Ebru.
That’s a maybe, mind. “I’m not the kind of director who has lots of projects waiting,” Ceylan says, with a laugh. “Making a film changes you, and after struggling with a film, I just…wait. I go through hating cinema for some time. And then, under the load of the images and ideas, I slowly begin to work.”
“Three Monkeys” will receive limited U.S. distribution sometime in 2008 or 2009.
Variety Review | Three Monkeys
Cannes
Three Monkeys
Uc maymun (Turkey-France-Italy)
By JUSTIN CHANG
Dark drama 'Three Monkeys' offers adultery, murder and gloom.
A Pyramide Distribution (in France) release of a Zeynofilm, NBC Film (Turkey)/Pyramide Prods. (France)/Bim Distribuzione (Italy) production, in association with Imaj, with the participation of Ministere de la Culture et du Tourisme Turc, Eurimages, CNC. (International sales: Pyramide Intl., Paris.) Produced by Zeynep Ozbatur. Co-producers, Fabienne Vonier, Valerio de Paolis, Cemal Noyan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Screenplay, Ebru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. With: Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal.(Turkish dialogue)
Seeing, hearing and speaking no evil comes all too easily to the tortured trio in "Three Monkeys," a powerfully bleak family drama that leaves its characters' offenses largely offscreen but lingers with agonizing, drawn-out deliberation on the consequences. Bad faith, simmering resentment, adultery and murder all figure into Nuri Bilge Ceylan's darkly burnished fifth feature, giving it a stronger narrative undertow than his previous Cannes competition entries, "Distant" and "Climates." But gripping as the film often is, its unrelenting doom and gloom offers fewer lasting rewards, making it unlikely to draw sizable arthouse crowds beyond the Turkish helmer's fanbase.
Opening shot of aging Turkish politician Servet (Ercan Kesal), falling asleep at the wheel as he drives through the woods at night, not only foreshadows the monochrome misery to come but also establishes the film's dramatic m.o. Rather than showing the subsequent collision, Ceylan cuts to a forest clearing where a pedestrian lies dead in the background and Servet, trembling with fear in the foreground, determines to hide his guilt.
Emphasis on aftermath rather than action is significant: The one who ends up paying for Servet's crime is his longtime personal driver, Eyup (Yavuz Bingol), who takes the rap after Servet's promise of a hefty lump sum upon his release. As Eyup's prison term drags on for months, his beautiful wife Hacer (Hatice Aslan) and aimless teenage son Ismail (Ahmet Rifat Sungar) grow impatient and restless in their seaside flat, prompting Hacer to ask Servet for an advance.
Servet, who's just lost an important election, makes good on his promise, though the indelicate nature of his agreement with Hacer -- again, made clear to the audience with no explicit imagery -- can't be kept hidden for long from Ismail. The troubled youth, in turn, has a hard time concealing the truth from Eyup when the latter re-enters the picture, creating a pressure-cooker scenario that Ceylan plays out for maximum emotional tension at an achingly measured tempo.
Though he eventually serves up an entire potboiler's worth of past tragedies and festering secrets, Ceylan takes a characteristically oblique approach. Screenplay (credited to the helmer, his wife Ebru Ceylan and Ercan Kesal) dwells mainly on the characters' inability to communicate -- the film offers lots of awkward silences and angsty brooding, but precious little eye contact -- making the inevitable angry outbursts all the more affecting.
Primary thesps are superbly convincing as a dysfunctional unit. Absent for most of the first half, Bingol dominates the second with his volatile fits of temper. Aslan is both maddening and sympathetic as the frustrated seductress, and handsome Sungar has heartbreaking moments as a son who, it's suggested, has borne more than his fair share of the emotional burdens.
While Servet's selfish actions impel the drama forward, the political content and latent class tensions never distract from the core dynamic. But "Three Monkeys" reaches the point of diminishing returns in its final reels, as the tale relaxes its vise-like grip and its machinations begin to seem transparent and overdetermined in retrospect. And aside from a darkly comic cell-phone ringtone that steals every scene it's in, the wry humor that made "Distant" so memorable is mostly absent here.
Reteaming with "Climates" d.p. Gokhan Tiryaki, Ceylan again offers beautifully composed HD images of exceptional depth and texture. In keeping with the angst-ridden tenor, however, his color palette seems deliberately murkier and more constrained than usual, occasionally drifting past sepia into the realms of puke-green. In some ways, the extraordinarily crisp and detailed soundscape is even more impressive, making audible the scrape of tires on gravel and the unyielding rhythms of the sea.
Camera (color, HD, widescreen), Gokhan Tiryaki; editors, Ayhan Ergursel, Bora Goksingol, Nuri Bilge Ceylan; art director, Ebru Ceylan; sound (Dolby Digital), Olivier Goinard; sound editor, Umut Senyol; assistant director, Ayla Karli Tezgoren. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (competing), May 15, 2008. Running time: 109 MIN
Three Monkeys
Uc maymun (Turkey-France-Italy)
By JUSTIN CHANG
Dark drama 'Three Monkeys' offers adultery, murder and gloom.
A Pyramide Distribution (in France) release of a Zeynofilm, NBC Film (Turkey)/Pyramide Prods. (France)/Bim Distribuzione (Italy) production, in association with Imaj, with the participation of Ministere de la Culture et du Tourisme Turc, Eurimages, CNC. (International sales: Pyramide Intl., Paris.) Produced by Zeynep Ozbatur. Co-producers, Fabienne Vonier, Valerio de Paolis, Cemal Noyan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Screenplay, Ebru Ceylan, Ercan Kesal, Nuri Bilge Ceylan. With: Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal.(Turkish dialogue)
Seeing, hearing and speaking no evil comes all too easily to the tortured trio in "Three Monkeys," a powerfully bleak family drama that leaves its characters' offenses largely offscreen but lingers with agonizing, drawn-out deliberation on the consequences. Bad faith, simmering resentment, adultery and murder all figure into Nuri Bilge Ceylan's darkly burnished fifth feature, giving it a stronger narrative undertow than his previous Cannes competition entries, "Distant" and "Climates." But gripping as the film often is, its unrelenting doom and gloom offers fewer lasting rewards, making it unlikely to draw sizable arthouse crowds beyond the Turkish helmer's fanbase.
Opening shot of aging Turkish politician Servet (Ercan Kesal), falling asleep at the wheel as he drives through the woods at night, not only foreshadows the monochrome misery to come but also establishes the film's dramatic m.o. Rather than showing the subsequent collision, Ceylan cuts to a forest clearing where a pedestrian lies dead in the background and Servet, trembling with fear in the foreground, determines to hide his guilt.
Emphasis on aftermath rather than action is significant: The one who ends up paying for Servet's crime is his longtime personal driver, Eyup (Yavuz Bingol), who takes the rap after Servet's promise of a hefty lump sum upon his release. As Eyup's prison term drags on for months, his beautiful wife Hacer (Hatice Aslan) and aimless teenage son Ismail (Ahmet Rifat Sungar) grow impatient and restless in their seaside flat, prompting Hacer to ask Servet for an advance.
Servet, who's just lost an important election, makes good on his promise, though the indelicate nature of his agreement with Hacer -- again, made clear to the audience with no explicit imagery -- can't be kept hidden for long from Ismail. The troubled youth, in turn, has a hard time concealing the truth from Eyup when the latter re-enters the picture, creating a pressure-cooker scenario that Ceylan plays out for maximum emotional tension at an achingly measured tempo.
Though he eventually serves up an entire potboiler's worth of past tragedies and festering secrets, Ceylan takes a characteristically oblique approach. Screenplay (credited to the helmer, his wife Ebru Ceylan and Ercan Kesal) dwells mainly on the characters' inability to communicate -- the film offers lots of awkward silences and angsty brooding, but precious little eye contact -- making the inevitable angry outbursts all the more affecting.
Primary thesps are superbly convincing as a dysfunctional unit. Absent for most of the first half, Bingol dominates the second with his volatile fits of temper. Aslan is both maddening and sympathetic as the frustrated seductress, and handsome Sungar has heartbreaking moments as a son who, it's suggested, has borne more than his fair share of the emotional burdens.
While Servet's selfish actions impel the drama forward, the political content and latent class tensions never distract from the core dynamic. But "Three Monkeys" reaches the point of diminishing returns in its final reels, as the tale relaxes its vise-like grip and its machinations begin to seem transparent and overdetermined in retrospect. And aside from a darkly comic cell-phone ringtone that steals every scene it's in, the wry humor that made "Distant" so memorable is mostly absent here.
Reteaming with "Climates" d.p. Gokhan Tiryaki, Ceylan again offers beautifully composed HD images of exceptional depth and texture. In keeping with the angst-ridden tenor, however, his color palette seems deliberately murkier and more constrained than usual, occasionally drifting past sepia into the realms of puke-green. In some ways, the extraordinarily crisp and detailed soundscape is even more impressive, making audible the scrape of tires on gravel and the unyielding rhythms of the sea.
Camera (color, HD, widescreen), Gokhan Tiryaki; editors, Ayhan Ergursel, Bora Goksingol, Nuri Bilge Ceylan; art director, Ebru Ceylan; sound (Dolby Digital), Olivier Goinard; sound editor, Umut Senyol; assistant director, Ayla Karli Tezgoren. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (competing), May 15, 2008. Running time: 109 MIN
Cannes 2008 diary: ‘Lion’s Den’ and 'Three Monkeys'
Cannes 2008 diary: ‘Lion’s Den’ and 'Three Monkeys'
Geoff Andrew likes Pablo Trapero's 'Lion's Den', but loves 'Nuri Bilge Ceylan's 'Three Monkeys', both of which screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
(.............)
On the surface, the best film here so far for me – Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ‘Three Monkeys’ – is only very superficially about incarceration, in that the story is quickly kick-started when a local politician facing elections persuades his driver to take the rap for him after the former knocks over a man with his car; in return he’ll pay his employee’s salary to his teenage son, and hand over a large lump sum when he emerges from prison after six months or so.
But if we actually see only a couple of prison-set scenes, when the son visits his father, that doesn’t mean that imprisonment isn’t a central, almost Dostoievskian metaphor for what happens to the driver, his wife and son, and the the politician. For that lie told to the cops is merely the first – and indeed the fount – of many more deceits that shape the increasingly twisted and dangerous interactions between the four protagonists, all of whom soon find themselves trapped like rats by their own fears, desires, doubts and suspicions.
This fifth feature is arguably the most ambitious film yet from the maker of ‘Uzak’ and ‘Climates’. It has the dry humour, assured pacing, astute psychological insights and sharp sense of moral and dramatic irony that has been conspicuous in all his work, but in many respects the film feels like an expansion upon ‘Climates’, not only in extending that film’s clear-eyed, unsentimental assessment of male-female relationships from a couple to a whole family and its acquaintances, but in exploring the rich potential afforded by digital technology; if you thought Ceylan’s photographer’s eye produced stunning images in ‘Climates’, ‘Three Monkeys’ pushes the envelope still further. It’s been bought for the UK, so when it turns up, see it – and marvel!
Geoff Andrew likes Pablo Trapero's 'Lion's Den', but loves 'Nuri Bilge Ceylan's 'Three Monkeys', both of which screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
(.............)
On the surface, the best film here so far for me – Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ‘Three Monkeys’ – is only very superficially about incarceration, in that the story is quickly kick-started when a local politician facing elections persuades his driver to take the rap for him after the former knocks over a man with his car; in return he’ll pay his employee’s salary to his teenage son, and hand over a large lump sum when he emerges from prison after six months or so.
But if we actually see only a couple of prison-set scenes, when the son visits his father, that doesn’t mean that imprisonment isn’t a central, almost Dostoievskian metaphor for what happens to the driver, his wife and son, and the the politician. For that lie told to the cops is merely the first – and indeed the fount – of many more deceits that shape the increasingly twisted and dangerous interactions between the four protagonists, all of whom soon find themselves trapped like rats by their own fears, desires, doubts and suspicions.
This fifth feature is arguably the most ambitious film yet from the maker of ‘Uzak’ and ‘Climates’. It has the dry humour, assured pacing, astute psychological insights and sharp sense of moral and dramatic irony that has been conspicuous in all his work, but in many respects the film feels like an expansion upon ‘Climates’, not only in extending that film’s clear-eyed, unsentimental assessment of male-female relationships from a couple to a whole family and its acquaintances, but in exploring the rich potential afforded by digital technology; if you thought Ceylan’s photographer’s eye produced stunning images in ‘Climates’, ‘Three Monkeys’ pushes the envelope still further. It’s been bought for the UK, so when it turns up, see it – and marvel!
Cannes 2008 | Thunder rolls in Three Monkeys
Cannes 2008: Thunder rolls in Three Monkeys
Uc Maymun (Three Monkeys)In competition at the Cannes Film Festival for the third time in six years, Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan presented Three Monkeys to the press yesterday evening. The work explores in greater depth the aesthetic and social issues that inspired his four previous features.
With his dazzling settings, sense of framing and direction, the director – whose film was co-produced by France and Italy – has delved even deeper in his analysis of the contradictions of human feelings.
Punctuated by four series of thunder rolls which turn the characters’ lives upside down, Three Monkeys unravels the story of a family destroyed by power and money. A chauffeur agrees to go to prison – in return for money – instead of his boss, a communist politician who runs over a passer-by the day before an election (which he loses).
The chauffeur’s wife demands an advance on the sum of money for her 20-year-old son who takes refuge in sleep. But this move leads her straight into the arms of the boss, who then abandons her. The adultery is discovered by her son and then suspected by the father upon his release from prison, creating a stormy and passionate atmosphere in which the protagonists choose not to see, speak or listen, just like the three monkeys in the well-known fable.
The dramatic spiral of love and hate is haunted by fatality, the ghost of a child, and the enslavement of social, sentimental and family ties. This cursed (and very human) situation is examined in fine detail by a director who uses the brilliance of his art to explore darkness.
The film was produced on a budget of €1.8m by Turkish companies Zeynofilm and NBC Film (65%), and co-produced by French-based Pyramide (25%) and Italy’s Bim (10%). The latter two companies will release the film in their respective countries.
Three Monkeys received backing from Eurimages and the National Film Centre (CNC).
The title has been pre-bought by UK company New Wave from Pyramide, who are also handling international sales.
(Fabien Lemercier for cineuropa)
Uc Maymun (Three Monkeys)In competition at the Cannes Film Festival for the third time in six years, Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan presented Three Monkeys to the press yesterday evening. The work explores in greater depth the aesthetic and social issues that inspired his four previous features.
With his dazzling settings, sense of framing and direction, the director – whose film was co-produced by France and Italy – has delved even deeper in his analysis of the contradictions of human feelings.
Punctuated by four series of thunder rolls which turn the characters’ lives upside down, Three Monkeys unravels the story of a family destroyed by power and money. A chauffeur agrees to go to prison – in return for money – instead of his boss, a communist politician who runs over a passer-by the day before an election (which he loses).
The chauffeur’s wife demands an advance on the sum of money for her 20-year-old son who takes refuge in sleep. But this move leads her straight into the arms of the boss, who then abandons her. The adultery is discovered by her son and then suspected by the father upon his release from prison, creating a stormy and passionate atmosphere in which the protagonists choose not to see, speak or listen, just like the three monkeys in the well-known fable.
The dramatic spiral of love and hate is haunted by fatality, the ghost of a child, and the enslavement of social, sentimental and family ties. This cursed (and very human) situation is examined in fine detail by a director who uses the brilliance of his art to explore darkness.
The film was produced on a budget of €1.8m by Turkish companies Zeynofilm and NBC Film (65%), and co-produced by French-based Pyramide (25%) and Italy’s Bim (10%). The latter two companies will release the film in their respective countries.
Three Monkeys received backing from Eurimages and the National Film Centre (CNC).
The title has been pre-bought by UK company New Wave from Pyramide, who are also handling international sales.
(Fabien Lemercier for cineuropa)
Cannes 2008 | Three Monkeys
May 16, 2008
Cannes. Three Monkeys.
"An ostensibly routine noir-style psychological thriller vaults into the realms of high art in competition contender Three Monkeys" writes Jonathan Romney in Screen Daily.
"Cannes has been kind to Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan in the past, with Uzak and Climates establishing his auteur credentials here in 2003 and 2006. His new film represents a bold departure from his past style: it's best described as introspective melodrama, yet both visually and tonally, it's still quintessential Ceylan."
"Seeing, hearing and speaking no evil comes all too easily to the tortured trio in Three Monkeys, a powerfully bleak family drama that leaves its characters' offenses largely offscreen but lingers with agonizing, drawn-out deliberation on the consequences," writes Justin Chang in Variety. "Bad faith, simmering resentment, adultery and murder all figure into Nuri Bilge Ceylan's darkly burnished fifth feature, giving it a stronger narrative undertow than his previous Cannes competition entries, Distant and Climates."
"I was hooked from the get-go - gripped, fascinated," writes Jeffrey Wells. "I was in a fairly excited state because I knew - I absolutely knew - I was seeing the first major film of the festival.... It's a very dark and austere film that unfolds at a purposeful but meditative (which absolutely doesn't mean "slow") pace, taking its time and saying to the audience, 'Don't worry, this is going somewhere... we're not jerking around so pay attention to the steps.'"
Updates: "On the surface, the best film here so far for me - Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Three Monkeys - is only very superficially about incarceration, in that the story is quickly kick-started when a local politician facing elections persuades his driver to take the rap for him after the former knocks over a man with his car; in return he'll pay his employee's salary to his teenage son, and hand over a large lump sum when he emerges from prison after six months or so," writes Geoff Andrew for Time Out. "But if we actually see only a couple of prison-set scenes, when the son visits his father, that doesn't mean that imprisonment isn't a central, almost Dostoievskian metaphor for what happens to the driver, his wife and son, and the the politician.... It's been bought for the UK, so when it turns up, see it - and marvel!"
"[I]t's largely commonplace, drear, and claustrophobic," writes Glenn Kenny. "One finds oneself frustrated by the stories Ceylan chooses not to tell - the would-be politician who sets the film's plot into motion seems a more interesting character than anybody in the family whose lives he effects - and by his too-insistent emphases, e.g., a bit involving an idiosyncratic ring tone that's funny and wrenching the first time, still effective the second, and stale the third. The movie's not bad, but it's not terribly special, either."
"[L]eft me cold," writes the Boston Globe's Ty Burr. "It's a familial melodrama of infidelity and incrimination that James M Cain could have made hay with but that gets slowed down to a portentous Antonioni crawl by the director."
Cannes. Three Monkeys.
"An ostensibly routine noir-style psychological thriller vaults into the realms of high art in competition contender Three Monkeys" writes Jonathan Romney in Screen Daily.
"Cannes has been kind to Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan in the past, with Uzak and Climates establishing his auteur credentials here in 2003 and 2006. His new film represents a bold departure from his past style: it's best described as introspective melodrama, yet both visually and tonally, it's still quintessential Ceylan."
"Seeing, hearing and speaking no evil comes all too easily to the tortured trio in Three Monkeys, a powerfully bleak family drama that leaves its characters' offenses largely offscreen but lingers with agonizing, drawn-out deliberation on the consequences," writes Justin Chang in Variety. "Bad faith, simmering resentment, adultery and murder all figure into Nuri Bilge Ceylan's darkly burnished fifth feature, giving it a stronger narrative undertow than his previous Cannes competition entries, Distant and Climates."
"I was hooked from the get-go - gripped, fascinated," writes Jeffrey Wells. "I was in a fairly excited state because I knew - I absolutely knew - I was seeing the first major film of the festival.... It's a very dark and austere film that unfolds at a purposeful but meditative (which absolutely doesn't mean "slow") pace, taking its time and saying to the audience, 'Don't worry, this is going somewhere... we're not jerking around so pay attention to the steps.'"
Updates: "On the surface, the best film here so far for me - Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Three Monkeys - is only very superficially about incarceration, in that the story is quickly kick-started when a local politician facing elections persuades his driver to take the rap for him after the former knocks over a man with his car; in return he'll pay his employee's salary to his teenage son, and hand over a large lump sum when he emerges from prison after six months or so," writes Geoff Andrew for Time Out. "But if we actually see only a couple of prison-set scenes, when the son visits his father, that doesn't mean that imprisonment isn't a central, almost Dostoievskian metaphor for what happens to the driver, his wife and son, and the the politician.... It's been bought for the UK, so when it turns up, see it - and marvel!"
"[I]t's largely commonplace, drear, and claustrophobic," writes Glenn Kenny. "One finds oneself frustrated by the stories Ceylan chooses not to tell - the would-be politician who sets the film's plot into motion seems a more interesting character than anybody in the family whose lives he effects - and by his too-insistent emphases, e.g., a bit involving an idiosyncratic ring tone that's funny and wrenching the first time, still effective the second, and stale the third. The movie's not bad, but it's not terribly special, either."
"[L]eft me cold," writes the Boston Globe's Ty Burr. "It's a familial melodrama of infidelity and incrimination that James M Cain could have made hay with but that gets slowed down to a portentous Antonioni crawl by the director."
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
2008 Altin Koza/Golden Cocoon
Altın Koza'da 12 film yarışacak (English text in progress)
06 Mayıs 2008 AA
Bu yıl 2-8 Haziran arasında yapılacak ''15. Altın Koza Uluslararası Film Festivali''nde 12 Türk filminin yarışacağı bildirildi.
''Ulusal Uzun Metraj Film Yarışması''nda yarışacak filmler belli oldu. Toplam 29 filmin sunulduğu yarışmada, sinema yazarları ve festival sinema etkinlikleri koordinatörlerinden oluşan Festival Kurulu tarafından belirlenen 12 filmin, Altın Koza ödülüne sahip olabilmek için aday seçildiği bildirildi.
6 kişilik kurul ön değerlendirme sonucunda, yönetmenliğini Ümit Ünal'ın yaptığı ''Ara'', Hüseyin Karabek'in ''Gitmek'', Mehmet Güreli'nin ''Gölge'', Mehmet Yılmaz'ın ''Hazan Mevsimi: Bir Panayır Hikayesi'', Reis Çelik'in ''Mülteci'', Derviş Zaim'in ''Nokta'', Handan İpekçi'nin ''Saklı Yüzler'', Özcan Alperler'in ''Sonbahar'', Seyfi Teoman'ın ''Tatil Kitabı'', Çağan Irmak'ın ''Ulak'', Mahsun Kırmızıgül'ün ''Beyaz Melek'' ve İnan Temelkuran'ın ''Made in Europe'' filmlerinin ''Halk Jürisi'' ve ''Büyük Jüri''nin önüne çıkmasına karar verdi.
Festival Kurulu ayrıca, Tayfun Pirselimoğlu'nun ''Rıza'', Semih Kaplanoğlu'nun ''Yumurta'' ve Fatih Akın'ın ''Yaşamın Kıyısında'' isimli filmlerinin yarışma dışı gösterim için önerilmesini de kararlaştırdı. Yarışmada ödül alacak filmlerin, 7 Haziran Cumartesi günü yapılacak ödül töreni ile sahiplerini bulacağı bildirildi.
En İyi Film Ödülü 250 bin YTL, Büyük Jüri Yılmaz Güney Ödülü 75 bin YTL, Halk Jürisi En İyi Film ve En İyi Yönetmen Ödülü de 50'şer bin YTL olarak belirlenmişti.
Size bu kadar ödül yeter!
Altın Koza'nın yarışma bölümüne Tayfun Pirselimoğlu imzalı 'Rıza' da kabul edilmedi.
21/05/2008 ERKAN AKTUĞ
'Yumurta', 'Yaşamın Kıyısında' ve 'Rıza', çok ödül kazandıklarından olsa gerek haziran ayında Adana Altın Koza Film Festivali'nin yarışma bölümüne kabul edilmedi. Yarışma yönetmeliğinde ödüllü filmler katılamaz şartı yok. Semih Kaplanoğlu 'Neye göre karar veriyorlar bilmiyoruz', Tayfun Pirselimoğlu 'Bu garipliğin ‘artistik’ bir nedene bağlı olmadığı belli' diyor
İSTANBUL - "Film festivallerin, şartnamelerinin gereklerini yerine getirmeyip kerameti kendinden menkul gizli mahfil kararlarla bir yerlere gidilemeyeceğini artık anlamaları gerekiyor" diyor 'Rıza'nın yönetmeni Tayfun Pirselimoğlu. Son gelişme 15. Adana Altın Koza Film Festivali'nde yaşandı. 'Yumurta', 'Yaşamın Kıyısında' ve 'Rıza' gibi yılın bol ödüllü filmleri 2-8 Haziran tarihleri arasında yapılacak festivalin yarışma bölümüne kabul edilmedi. Çok festival dolaştıkları ve çok ödül aldıklarından olsa gerek her üç film de 'ödüllü filmler' başlığı altında yarışma dışı gösterilecek. Ancak festivalin yarışma yönetmeliğinde de başka festivalde ödül alan filmler katılamaz şartı yok. Peki o zaman, sinema yazarları Alin Taşçıyan, Esin Küçüktepepınar, Aslı Selçuk ile Altın Koza ekibinden Kadir Beycioğlu, Ahmet Boyacıoğlu ve Başak Emre'den oluşan ön seçici kurul, bu filmleri beğenmediği için mi yarışmaya almadı?
'Artistik bir nedene dayanmıyor'
Yönetmen Pirselimoğlu, filminin yarışma dışı gösterilmesinin artistik bir nedene dayandığına inanmıyor. Benzer bir durumun İstanbul Film Festivali'nde de yaşandığını hatırlatan Pirselimoğlu, "Rıza’nın herhangi akla uygun, makul, doyurucu bir açıklama yapılamadan yarışma dışı gösterilmesi önerildi. Bu garipliğin ‘artistik’ bir nedene bağlı olmadığı bu özel gösterim önerisinden belli. Bu ve benzeri filmlerin yarışmaların bağlı oldukları şartnameler yerine kişisel, muğlak ve en önemlisi ‘gizli’ şartlarla yarışma dışında bırakılması tehlikeli bir gidişin işareti olarak görünüyor. Bir festivalin filmin artistik nitelikleri nedeniyle yarışmaya almaması tartışılacak bir konu değildir. Buradaki mesele bu niteliği haiz ama ‘bilinmeyen başka niteliklerden’ yoksun olmakla ilgili. Filmlerin ‘estetik’, ‘teknik’ kriterlerin dışında bilinmeyen, açıklanmayan, saklanan şartlarla ‘dışarıda bırakılması’ huzursuz edici bir hal ve ister istemez yaratılabilecek polemiklere zemin hazırlıyor" diye konuşuyor.
'Yumurta'nın yönetmeni Semih Kaplanoğlu da Altın Koza'nın kararından dolayı şaşkın: "Ne diyebilirim ki? Türkiye'de böyle bu iler. Neye göre karar veriliyor bilmiyorum. Yarışma yönetmeliğinde yazması lazım bunların. Ön seçici kurulun da önceden açıklanması lazım."
Aklın yolu bir, 'Yaşamın Kıyısında'nın yapımcısı Ali Akdeniz de benzer şeylerden yakınıyor. "Kararların neye göre alınıyor, yönetmelikte kurallar yazsın ki bilelim. Katılırız, katılmayız ayrı konu. Aman katılın, filminizi gönderin diye bir telaş arıyorlar, gönderiyoruz, diyorlar ki 'yarışma dışı'. Israrla çağırıp bir sürü film toplayıp sonra da onları elemek ayrı bir tatmin mi veriyor anlamıyorum. İstanbul da almadı bizim filmi. Siyad yerli film olarak kabul etmedi. Herkes ayrı bir telden çalıyor. Keşke tüzüklerde yazsa da bilsek" diyen Ali Akdeniz, diğer taraftan da bu tür meselelerin fazla büyütülmemesi gerektiğine inanıyor. Akdeniz, "Sonuçta festivaller, ödüller filmleri yüceltmek için var ve yaşatılmalı" diyor.
'Festivaller dedikodu platformuna dönüşüyor'
Altın Koza'ya seçilmeyen filmlerden gösterimdeki 'Münferit'in yönetmeni Dersu Yavuz Altun da Türkiye'deki festivallerin, sağlıklı bir değerlendirme sisteminin olmayışından dolayı tam bir spekülasyon ve dedikodu platformuna dönüştüğünü düşünüyor. Altun, "Nesnel, şeffaf, gerekçeli karar metni kamuoyuna açık, herkesin bilgi sahibi olabileceği bir sistem kurmak, ne yazık ki ne festival yöneticilerinin, ne de onlarla kafa kol ilişkileri içinde olan sinemacıların istediği bir şey değil. Çünkü böyle bir sistem kendisini tanrı yerine koyan festival yöneticilerinin iktidarını sarsacaktır. Çözüm bu alanda çalışan sinema örgütleriyle mümkündür" diye konuşuyor.
Bundan dört beş sene öncesine kadar yılda ortalama 15 film çekildiği için festivallerde bu tür sorunlar çıkmazdı. son yıllarda ise film sayısı 50'ye yaklaşıyor. 'Artistik' nedenler dışında, festival yönetmeliklerinde yer almayan çeşitli bahanelerle filmlerin yarışmalardan elenmesi sinema sektöründe sürekli bir polemik yaşanmasına neden oluyor. Eleştirmenlerin övgüyle bahsettiği Ümit Ünal'ın 'Ara' ile Mehmet Eryılmaz'ın 'Hazan Mevsimi' filmlerini Altın Portakal'a seçilmemesi ve ön seçici kurulunun gizli tutulması tartışma yaratmıştı. Yine İstanbul'a kabul edilmeyen 'Rıza', Ankara'da en iyi film dahil üç ödül almıştı. Artistik nedenler dışında bahaneler üretmekten, polemik yaratmaktan ne zaman bıkacağız? Türkiye'deki film festivallerinin yarışma yönetmeliklerinin yenilemenin zamanı gelmedi mi artık?
Altın Koza'da yarışanlar
Toplam 29 filmin başvurduğu Adana Altın Koza Film Festivali'nin yarışma bölümüne 12 film seçildi. Alin Taşçıyan, Esin Küçüktepepınar, Aslı Selçuk, Kadir Beycioğlu, Ahmet Boyacıoğlu ve Başak Emre'den oluşan ön seçici kurul 'Ara' (Ümit Ünal), 'Gitmek' (Hüseyin Karabey), 'Gölge' (Mehmet Güreli), 'Hazan Mevsimi' (Mehmet Eryılmaz), 'Mülteci' (Reis Çelik), 'Nokta' (Derviş Zaim), 'Saklı Yüzler' (Handan İpekçi), 'Sonbahar' (Özcan Alper), 'Tatil Kitabı' (Seyfi Teoman), 'Ulak' (Çağan Irmak), 'Beyaz Melek' (Mahsun Kırmızıgül), 'Made in Europe'u (İnan Temelkuran) yarışmaya uygun buldu. En iyi filme 250 bin YTL para ödülünün verileceği festivalin yarışma jürisi ise Ezel Akay (başkan), Sırrı Süreyya Önder, sinema sanatçıları Derya Alabora, Başak Köklükaya, Lale Mansur, Cahit Berkay, Hayk Kirakosyan, Murat Özer ve Sadık Deveci'den oluşuyor.
'Bu vodvillerden daha çok göreceğiz'
Yönetmen Tayfun Pirselimoğlu, festivallerle ilgili konuşurken sinemamızdaki bir başka tuhaf halin de Kültür Bakanlığı Sinema Destekleme Kurul’nun aldığı son kararlar olduğunu söyledi. "Kararlara bakınca ister istemez kurulun taşıdığı adın tuhaf bir ironiyi barındırdığı akla geliyor. Bir ‘destek’ olduğu aşikar. Her ‘ortalama’ vatandaş, birçok konuda olduğu gibi bu ironiyi üretmede de alicenap davranan kurulun değerli üyelerinin sinema için yarattıkları desteğin -ve de kösteğin- kriterleri konusunda kuşkuya bir mahal olmadığını bilir! Dost, ahbap, akraba, nefret ilişkileri ile sarmalanmış, paketlenmiş, adrese gönderilmiş bir tuhaf halin ‘sinemamıza’ olan katkısı, gönülleri en azından bu yönden gani olan üyeleri tarafından muhakak ki şiddetle savunulacaktır. Seçimlerin son derece objektif şekilde gerçekleştiğini söyleyen bir üyenin bunun kanıtı olarak da ‘oylama’ yapılarak sonuca ulaşıldığını ifade etmesi bir başka feraset örneği. Bu 'en demokratik seçimden’, ‘puanlama yoluyla’ yeğen, kardeş, enişte sonuçları çıkması da şaşırtıcı değil doğal ki. Bu vodvillerden daha çok göreceğimiz anlaşılıyor."
06 Mayıs 2008 AA
Bu yıl 2-8 Haziran arasında yapılacak ''15. Altın Koza Uluslararası Film Festivali''nde 12 Türk filminin yarışacağı bildirildi.
''Ulusal Uzun Metraj Film Yarışması''nda yarışacak filmler belli oldu. Toplam 29 filmin sunulduğu yarışmada, sinema yazarları ve festival sinema etkinlikleri koordinatörlerinden oluşan Festival Kurulu tarafından belirlenen 12 filmin, Altın Koza ödülüne sahip olabilmek için aday seçildiği bildirildi.
6 kişilik kurul ön değerlendirme sonucunda, yönetmenliğini Ümit Ünal'ın yaptığı ''Ara'', Hüseyin Karabek'in ''Gitmek'', Mehmet Güreli'nin ''Gölge'', Mehmet Yılmaz'ın ''Hazan Mevsimi: Bir Panayır Hikayesi'', Reis Çelik'in ''Mülteci'', Derviş Zaim'in ''Nokta'', Handan İpekçi'nin ''Saklı Yüzler'', Özcan Alperler'in ''Sonbahar'', Seyfi Teoman'ın ''Tatil Kitabı'', Çağan Irmak'ın ''Ulak'', Mahsun Kırmızıgül'ün ''Beyaz Melek'' ve İnan Temelkuran'ın ''Made in Europe'' filmlerinin ''Halk Jürisi'' ve ''Büyük Jüri''nin önüne çıkmasına karar verdi.
Festival Kurulu ayrıca, Tayfun Pirselimoğlu'nun ''Rıza'', Semih Kaplanoğlu'nun ''Yumurta'' ve Fatih Akın'ın ''Yaşamın Kıyısında'' isimli filmlerinin yarışma dışı gösterim için önerilmesini de kararlaştırdı. Yarışmada ödül alacak filmlerin, 7 Haziran Cumartesi günü yapılacak ödül töreni ile sahiplerini bulacağı bildirildi.
En İyi Film Ödülü 250 bin YTL, Büyük Jüri Yılmaz Güney Ödülü 75 bin YTL, Halk Jürisi En İyi Film ve En İyi Yönetmen Ödülü de 50'şer bin YTL olarak belirlenmişti.
Size bu kadar ödül yeter!
Altın Koza'nın yarışma bölümüne Tayfun Pirselimoğlu imzalı 'Rıza' da kabul edilmedi.
21/05/2008 ERKAN AKTUĞ
'Yumurta', 'Yaşamın Kıyısında' ve 'Rıza', çok ödül kazandıklarından olsa gerek haziran ayında Adana Altın Koza Film Festivali'nin yarışma bölümüne kabul edilmedi. Yarışma yönetmeliğinde ödüllü filmler katılamaz şartı yok. Semih Kaplanoğlu 'Neye göre karar veriyorlar bilmiyoruz', Tayfun Pirselimoğlu 'Bu garipliğin ‘artistik’ bir nedene bağlı olmadığı belli' diyor
İSTANBUL - "Film festivallerin, şartnamelerinin gereklerini yerine getirmeyip kerameti kendinden menkul gizli mahfil kararlarla bir yerlere gidilemeyeceğini artık anlamaları gerekiyor" diyor 'Rıza'nın yönetmeni Tayfun Pirselimoğlu. Son gelişme 15. Adana Altın Koza Film Festivali'nde yaşandı. 'Yumurta', 'Yaşamın Kıyısında' ve 'Rıza' gibi yılın bol ödüllü filmleri 2-8 Haziran tarihleri arasında yapılacak festivalin yarışma bölümüne kabul edilmedi. Çok festival dolaştıkları ve çok ödül aldıklarından olsa gerek her üç film de 'ödüllü filmler' başlığı altında yarışma dışı gösterilecek. Ancak festivalin yarışma yönetmeliğinde de başka festivalde ödül alan filmler katılamaz şartı yok. Peki o zaman, sinema yazarları Alin Taşçıyan, Esin Küçüktepepınar, Aslı Selçuk ile Altın Koza ekibinden Kadir Beycioğlu, Ahmet Boyacıoğlu ve Başak Emre'den oluşan ön seçici kurul, bu filmleri beğenmediği için mi yarışmaya almadı?
'Artistik bir nedene dayanmıyor'
Yönetmen Pirselimoğlu, filminin yarışma dışı gösterilmesinin artistik bir nedene dayandığına inanmıyor. Benzer bir durumun İstanbul Film Festivali'nde de yaşandığını hatırlatan Pirselimoğlu, "Rıza’nın herhangi akla uygun, makul, doyurucu bir açıklama yapılamadan yarışma dışı gösterilmesi önerildi. Bu garipliğin ‘artistik’ bir nedene bağlı olmadığı bu özel gösterim önerisinden belli. Bu ve benzeri filmlerin yarışmaların bağlı oldukları şartnameler yerine kişisel, muğlak ve en önemlisi ‘gizli’ şartlarla yarışma dışında bırakılması tehlikeli bir gidişin işareti olarak görünüyor. Bir festivalin filmin artistik nitelikleri nedeniyle yarışmaya almaması tartışılacak bir konu değildir. Buradaki mesele bu niteliği haiz ama ‘bilinmeyen başka niteliklerden’ yoksun olmakla ilgili. Filmlerin ‘estetik’, ‘teknik’ kriterlerin dışında bilinmeyen, açıklanmayan, saklanan şartlarla ‘dışarıda bırakılması’ huzursuz edici bir hal ve ister istemez yaratılabilecek polemiklere zemin hazırlıyor" diye konuşuyor.
'Yumurta'nın yönetmeni Semih Kaplanoğlu da Altın Koza'nın kararından dolayı şaşkın: "Ne diyebilirim ki? Türkiye'de böyle bu iler. Neye göre karar veriliyor bilmiyorum. Yarışma yönetmeliğinde yazması lazım bunların. Ön seçici kurulun da önceden açıklanması lazım."
Aklın yolu bir, 'Yaşamın Kıyısında'nın yapımcısı Ali Akdeniz de benzer şeylerden yakınıyor. "Kararların neye göre alınıyor, yönetmelikte kurallar yazsın ki bilelim. Katılırız, katılmayız ayrı konu. Aman katılın, filminizi gönderin diye bir telaş arıyorlar, gönderiyoruz, diyorlar ki 'yarışma dışı'. Israrla çağırıp bir sürü film toplayıp sonra da onları elemek ayrı bir tatmin mi veriyor anlamıyorum. İstanbul da almadı bizim filmi. Siyad yerli film olarak kabul etmedi. Herkes ayrı bir telden çalıyor. Keşke tüzüklerde yazsa da bilsek" diyen Ali Akdeniz, diğer taraftan da bu tür meselelerin fazla büyütülmemesi gerektiğine inanıyor. Akdeniz, "Sonuçta festivaller, ödüller filmleri yüceltmek için var ve yaşatılmalı" diyor.
'Festivaller dedikodu platformuna dönüşüyor'
Altın Koza'ya seçilmeyen filmlerden gösterimdeki 'Münferit'in yönetmeni Dersu Yavuz Altun da Türkiye'deki festivallerin, sağlıklı bir değerlendirme sisteminin olmayışından dolayı tam bir spekülasyon ve dedikodu platformuna dönüştüğünü düşünüyor. Altun, "Nesnel, şeffaf, gerekçeli karar metni kamuoyuna açık, herkesin bilgi sahibi olabileceği bir sistem kurmak, ne yazık ki ne festival yöneticilerinin, ne de onlarla kafa kol ilişkileri içinde olan sinemacıların istediği bir şey değil. Çünkü böyle bir sistem kendisini tanrı yerine koyan festival yöneticilerinin iktidarını sarsacaktır. Çözüm bu alanda çalışan sinema örgütleriyle mümkündür" diye konuşuyor.
Bundan dört beş sene öncesine kadar yılda ortalama 15 film çekildiği için festivallerde bu tür sorunlar çıkmazdı. son yıllarda ise film sayısı 50'ye yaklaşıyor. 'Artistik' nedenler dışında, festival yönetmeliklerinde yer almayan çeşitli bahanelerle filmlerin yarışmalardan elenmesi sinema sektöründe sürekli bir polemik yaşanmasına neden oluyor. Eleştirmenlerin övgüyle bahsettiği Ümit Ünal'ın 'Ara' ile Mehmet Eryılmaz'ın 'Hazan Mevsimi' filmlerini Altın Portakal'a seçilmemesi ve ön seçici kurulunun gizli tutulması tartışma yaratmıştı. Yine İstanbul'a kabul edilmeyen 'Rıza', Ankara'da en iyi film dahil üç ödül almıştı. Artistik nedenler dışında bahaneler üretmekten, polemik yaratmaktan ne zaman bıkacağız? Türkiye'deki film festivallerinin yarışma yönetmeliklerinin yenilemenin zamanı gelmedi mi artık?
Altın Koza'da yarışanlar
Toplam 29 filmin başvurduğu Adana Altın Koza Film Festivali'nin yarışma bölümüne 12 film seçildi. Alin Taşçıyan, Esin Küçüktepepınar, Aslı Selçuk, Kadir Beycioğlu, Ahmet Boyacıoğlu ve Başak Emre'den oluşan ön seçici kurul 'Ara' (Ümit Ünal), 'Gitmek' (Hüseyin Karabey), 'Gölge' (Mehmet Güreli), 'Hazan Mevsimi' (Mehmet Eryılmaz), 'Mülteci' (Reis Çelik), 'Nokta' (Derviş Zaim), 'Saklı Yüzler' (Handan İpekçi), 'Sonbahar' (Özcan Alper), 'Tatil Kitabı' (Seyfi Teoman), 'Ulak' (Çağan Irmak), 'Beyaz Melek' (Mahsun Kırmızıgül), 'Made in Europe'u (İnan Temelkuran) yarışmaya uygun buldu. En iyi filme 250 bin YTL para ödülünün verileceği festivalin yarışma jürisi ise Ezel Akay (başkan), Sırrı Süreyya Önder, sinema sanatçıları Derya Alabora, Başak Köklükaya, Lale Mansur, Cahit Berkay, Hayk Kirakosyan, Murat Özer ve Sadık Deveci'den oluşuyor.
'Bu vodvillerden daha çok göreceğiz'
Yönetmen Tayfun Pirselimoğlu, festivallerle ilgili konuşurken sinemamızdaki bir başka tuhaf halin de Kültür Bakanlığı Sinema Destekleme Kurul’nun aldığı son kararlar olduğunu söyledi. "Kararlara bakınca ister istemez kurulun taşıdığı adın tuhaf bir ironiyi barındırdığı akla geliyor. Bir ‘destek’ olduğu aşikar. Her ‘ortalama’ vatandaş, birçok konuda olduğu gibi bu ironiyi üretmede de alicenap davranan kurulun değerli üyelerinin sinema için yarattıkları desteğin -ve de kösteğin- kriterleri konusunda kuşkuya bir mahal olmadığını bilir! Dost, ahbap, akraba, nefret ilişkileri ile sarmalanmış, paketlenmiş, adrese gönderilmiş bir tuhaf halin ‘sinemamıza’ olan katkısı, gönülleri en azından bu yönden gani olan üyeleri tarafından muhakak ki şiddetle savunulacaktır. Seçimlerin son derece objektif şekilde gerçekleştiğini söyleyen bir üyenin bunun kanıtı olarak da ‘oylama’ yapılarak sonuca ulaşıldığını ifade etmesi bir başka feraset örneği. Bu 'en demokratik seçimden’, ‘puanlama yoluyla’ yeğen, kardeş, enişte sonuçları çıkması da şaşırtıcı değil doğal ki. Bu vodvillerden daha çok göreceğimiz anlaşılıyor."
Monday, April 28, 2008
Critique | "Yumurta" Cine Live
Un poète devenu par la force des choses simple bouquiniste à Istanbul revient dans son village natal. Ayla, autrefois secrètement amoureuse de lui, l’invite à s’acquitter du rituel que la mort à empêcher sa mère d’accomplir. Sur ces riens, ces non-dits, ces émotions refoulées et ces sentiments avortés, le cinéaste construit un scénario en demi-teinte et prouve, à travers une mise en scène pudique, un superbe sens du détail palliant un dialogue volontairement épuré. Il compose avec cette histoire simple et ces sentiments universels une mélopée mélancolique d’une belle puissance émotionnelle. Et confirme aux côtes de Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Les climats) le renouveau du cinéma turc.
Xavier Leherpeur
Xavier Leherpeur
Critique | "Yumurta" LE MONDE
Critique
"Yumurta" : après la mort de la mère, parcours élégiaque vers la sérénité
LE MONDE | 22.04.08
Il y a d'abord ce plan d'une vieille femme qui marche dans une brume de campagne, sur fond sonore d'aboiements de chien, de chants d'oiseau. Elle sort du champ, définitivement. Et voilà maintenant Yusuf, libraire à Istanbul, poète. Voilà des informations distillées au fil d'images apparemment anodines, mais qui recèlent un sens caché : la voiture de Yusuf dans un long tunnel qui débouche sur la lumière, Yusuf assis près d'un corps recouvert d'un linceul, Yusuf devant une tombe et suivi comme son ombre par un petit garçon, Yusuf couché dans une forêt et réveillé par une nuée d'oiseaux.
L'avis du "Monde"
EXCELLENT
Bel exposé, au lyrisme discret et aux visions psychanalytiques, de ce que vient de vivre le héros, la mort de sa mère, son enterrement dans le village natal de Yusuf, un défilé d'émotions, chaos de sensations, qui le ramènent à sa petite enfance, remontent le temps, mélangent vie et songes.
Yusuf n'a de cesse de repartir au plus vite. Mais il y a quelque chose qui le retient, ou plutôt quelqu'un, qui l'aide à s'accomplir et à honorer le voeu de la défunte, quelqu'un qui le réconcilie avec ses souvenirs et lui ouvre les portes de l'avenir. Une jeune cousine, Ayla, dévouée à la mère dans ses derniers instants, garante de la tradition et de la survivance spirituelle des morts, humble servante, fille pure et désirable.
UN ÉTRANGE COMA
Humblement, comme dans un film d'Ozu ou de Satyajit Ray, Yumurta égrène de petits gestes anodins et isole des objets qui ont valeur de symbole. Une fleur plantée dans un pot un jour d'enterrement, un bol de lait, une brosse à dents, un pilier de bois en forme de crucifix, un puits envahi d'herbes, cet oeuf qui donne son titre au film et dont on guette l'apparition, signe du lien avec la mère, tardivement assumé.
Car Yusuf l'athée va mettre du temps à ressentir et à extérioriser son chagrin. Il faudra qu'Ayla insiste pour qu'il accomplisse le rite promis par sa mère avant de mourir : sacrifier un bélier dans la montagne. Il faudra cet étrange coma dans la cour du notaire et l'irrationnel écho d'une prière des obsèques, l'odeur d'un oignon, un cauchemar, des rencontres avec des fantômes du passé, l'exorcisme d'une déception amoureuse, et la découverte, au fil des heures et des jours, qu'Ayla est la discrète messagère de sa sérénité.
La nuque d'Ayla brûlant des feuilles mortes, une couleur de tricot, une panne d'électricité, un chant du coq : Semih Kaplanoglu ne cesse d'égrener des symptômes, de faire parler l'inconscient par le déroulement des gestes quotidiens, le départ sans cesse différé de Yusuf, le taciturne. Le cinéaste compose des cadres amples, des plans rigoureux, un rythme lent et harmonieux, pour épier ce qu'il y a d'admirable chez un homme ou une femme : la dignité, la fidélité, la grandeur d'âme, le regard, la patience, le doute et le tourment aussi.
La vieille amnésique qui, voyant Yusuf et Ayla ensemble, les prend pour de jeunes mariés, ne se trompe pas de beaucoup. Il y a quelque chose qui va illuminer ce couple, à tout jamais, quand la poule aura pondu. Semih Kaplanoglu maîtrise parfaitement son style élégiaque, limpide et poétique, ténébreux et radieux. Dans l'ombre de Nuri Bilge Ceylan, la Turquie vient de se découvrir un grand cinéaste.
Film turc de Semih Kaplanoglu. Avec Nejat Isler, Saadet Isil Aksoy. (1 h 37.)
Jean-Luc Douin
"Yumurta" : après la mort de la mère, parcours élégiaque vers la sérénité
LE MONDE | 22.04.08
Il y a d'abord ce plan d'une vieille femme qui marche dans une brume de campagne, sur fond sonore d'aboiements de chien, de chants d'oiseau. Elle sort du champ, définitivement. Et voilà maintenant Yusuf, libraire à Istanbul, poète. Voilà des informations distillées au fil d'images apparemment anodines, mais qui recèlent un sens caché : la voiture de Yusuf dans un long tunnel qui débouche sur la lumière, Yusuf assis près d'un corps recouvert d'un linceul, Yusuf devant une tombe et suivi comme son ombre par un petit garçon, Yusuf couché dans une forêt et réveillé par une nuée d'oiseaux.
L'avis du "Monde"
EXCELLENT
Bel exposé, au lyrisme discret et aux visions psychanalytiques, de ce que vient de vivre le héros, la mort de sa mère, son enterrement dans le village natal de Yusuf, un défilé d'émotions, chaos de sensations, qui le ramènent à sa petite enfance, remontent le temps, mélangent vie et songes.
Yusuf n'a de cesse de repartir au plus vite. Mais il y a quelque chose qui le retient, ou plutôt quelqu'un, qui l'aide à s'accomplir et à honorer le voeu de la défunte, quelqu'un qui le réconcilie avec ses souvenirs et lui ouvre les portes de l'avenir. Une jeune cousine, Ayla, dévouée à la mère dans ses derniers instants, garante de la tradition et de la survivance spirituelle des morts, humble servante, fille pure et désirable.
UN ÉTRANGE COMA
Humblement, comme dans un film d'Ozu ou de Satyajit Ray, Yumurta égrène de petits gestes anodins et isole des objets qui ont valeur de symbole. Une fleur plantée dans un pot un jour d'enterrement, un bol de lait, une brosse à dents, un pilier de bois en forme de crucifix, un puits envahi d'herbes, cet oeuf qui donne son titre au film et dont on guette l'apparition, signe du lien avec la mère, tardivement assumé.
Car Yusuf l'athée va mettre du temps à ressentir et à extérioriser son chagrin. Il faudra qu'Ayla insiste pour qu'il accomplisse le rite promis par sa mère avant de mourir : sacrifier un bélier dans la montagne. Il faudra cet étrange coma dans la cour du notaire et l'irrationnel écho d'une prière des obsèques, l'odeur d'un oignon, un cauchemar, des rencontres avec des fantômes du passé, l'exorcisme d'une déception amoureuse, et la découverte, au fil des heures et des jours, qu'Ayla est la discrète messagère de sa sérénité.
La nuque d'Ayla brûlant des feuilles mortes, une couleur de tricot, une panne d'électricité, un chant du coq : Semih Kaplanoglu ne cesse d'égrener des symptômes, de faire parler l'inconscient par le déroulement des gestes quotidiens, le départ sans cesse différé de Yusuf, le taciturne. Le cinéaste compose des cadres amples, des plans rigoureux, un rythme lent et harmonieux, pour épier ce qu'il y a d'admirable chez un homme ou une femme : la dignité, la fidélité, la grandeur d'âme, le regard, la patience, le doute et le tourment aussi.
La vieille amnésique qui, voyant Yusuf et Ayla ensemble, les prend pour de jeunes mariés, ne se trompe pas de beaucoup. Il y a quelque chose qui va illuminer ce couple, à tout jamais, quand la poule aura pondu. Semih Kaplanoglu maîtrise parfaitement son style élégiaque, limpide et poétique, ténébreux et radieux. Dans l'ombre de Nuri Bilge Ceylan, la Turquie vient de se découvrir un grand cinéaste.
Film turc de Semih Kaplanoglu. Avec Nejat Isler, Saadet Isil Aksoy. (1 h 37.)
Jean-Luc Douin
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