2012 | Araf by Yeşim Ustaoğlu

Written & directed by: Yeşim Ustaoğlu [1] ; Cinematographer: Michael HammonSound Engineer: Bruno Tarriere; Produced by: Ustaoglu Film (Turkey), CDP (France), The Match Factory (Germany)Produced by: Ustaoğlu Film (Turkey), CDP (France), The Match Factory (Germany) | Format: 35mm / color / Turkey / Germany / France 2012 Original Language: Turkish 
Match Factory | Araf  Site
Cast: Özcan Deniz, Neslihan Atagül, Barıs Hacıhan, Ilgaz Kocatürk, Nihal Yalçın


ARAF - SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN is the story of Zehra (18) and Olgun (18) whose lives are caught in a vacuum. They both work 24 hour shifts in a large motorway service station. The world in which they live and work is a place of throwaway culture and constant change. They too are waiting for a chance to change and escape from their empty, monotonous lives.


When Zehra is not working, she spends her life in front of the TV. She dreams that one day she will escape her dull surroundings and go far away to live a glamorous life and fall wonderfully in love like the characters she sees on the box. Zehra's colleague Olgun, who is wildly in love with Zehra and doesn't give up trying to impress her, also has big plans for his life: He wants to get rich quickly by winning a TV gameshow and become a power- ful and impressive man.


Zehra and Olgun share the same TV-fuelled dreams. But one day their lives are turned upside down, when Zehra falls passionately in love with a lorry driver, Mahur (38), who arrives at the petrol station during the winter. While Zehra discovers her own body, sexual powers and self- confidence through her affair with Mahur and starts to slowly lose her girlish innocence, Olgun, who is troubled by this change in Zehra, starts to try more outlandish stunts, inspired by those he has seen on TV, to make himself a local hero and win her back.


When Zehra learns that she is pregnant, she tries to protect her unborn child within a very conservative society and she learns that only she can take responsibility for her life and decide on its' direction. Olgun's violent reaction, brought about by his incredible disappointment and wounded pride at this news, lands him in prison.


After some time though, he learns the meaning of true love and selflessness. Over the course of the film young Zehra and Olgun grow up and learn the stark truths of life eventually embrac- ing each other and discovering a way out of this 'Araf,' or 'somewhere in between,' albeit ending up very far from their initial dreams...


[1]  After making several award-winning shorts in Turkey, Yesim Ustaoglu made her feature film debut in 1994 with THE TRACE. She received international recognition for her JOURNEY TO THE SUN (GÜNESE YOLCULUK). In competition at the Berlin Film Festival in 1999, it received the Blue Angel Award (Best European Film) and the Peace Prize. The moving story of a courageous friendship undaunted by political cruelty, JOURNEY TO THE SUN swept the Istanbul Film Festival by winning Best Film, Best Director, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Audience Award. Her third film, WAITING FOR THE CLOUDS, the story of a woman forced to live for 50 years with the haunting secrets of a hidden identity, was awarded NHK Sundance - International Film-maker's award and thus established a strong reputation for the director. With her fourth film, PANDORA'S BOX, the story of an old woman suffering from Alzheimer disease, Turkish filmmaker Yesim Ustaoglu won the Best Film and Best Actress award in San Sebastian in 2008, con- tinued to travel many international festival and was also released theatrically in many countries. 

Pandora's Box | The World Cinema Fund

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Pandora's Box by Yesim Ustaoglu, Turkey (German Partner: The Match Factory): 
Toronto International Film festival 2008, Visions
Golden Shell for Best Film, San Sebastián Film Festival 2008

Yeşim Ustaoğlu

Director

Yeşim Ustaoğlu

Filmography 1994 Iz/The Trace 1999 Günese yolculuk/Journey to the Sun 2004 Bulutlari beklerken/Waiting for the Clouds 2008 Pandoranin kutusu/Pandora’s box Biography She was born in Sarikamis, in eastern Turkey, in 1960. After making several award-winning shorts in Turkey, she made her feature film debut with 1994’s "The Trace" which was presented at numerous international festivals. Her second feature film, "Journey to the Sun", won the Blue Angel Award for Best European Film at the Berlin IFF and the Best Film and Best Director prizes at the Istanbul IFF in 1999. "Waiting for the Clouds" won the Special Jury Award and the Best Actress award at the Istanbul IFF and was screened at the Thessaloniki IFF 2004.

San Sebastian winner is Pandora's Box

Turkish film wins top award in San Sebastian. Nineteen films vied for San Sebastian awards at the 10-day festival held in the northern Basque coastal city facing the Bay of Biscay. Donostia is San Sebastian’s name in the locally spoken Basque language. This year was the 56th edition of Spain’s top film festival.


Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf’s film "Two-legged Horse" took the festival jury’s special prize. The best actor award went to Argentina’s Oscar Martinez for his role in "El Nido Vacio" (The Empty Nest). The best cinematography award went to Hugo Colace for his camera work in "El Nido Vacio." Benoit Delphine and Gustave Kervern shared the award for best screenplay for the French movie "Louise-Michel."

Festivals annual New Director award went to Chinese filmmaker Cao Baoping for his film "The Equation of Love and Death." American director, Paul Thomas Anderson, was awarded the Fipresci prize - a subordinate category - for his film "There Will Be Blood." American actress Meryl Streep and Spanish actor Antonio Bandera’s were honored on Friday with the Donostia Prize for a lifetimes work.


[1] The Match Factory has sold Greek rights to San Sebastian Film Festival winner "Pandora's Box" to 2-1-0 Films after Spain's Karma Films acquired it for Spain at the beginning of the fest.

Cologne-based Match Factory said Trigon Film will release the pic in Switzerland. It will also be broadcast on the NHK web in Japan.

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).