New Horizons for UK Film: A consultation on the BFI Future Plan 2012-2017 The BFI has launched a four-week consultation on its Future Plan for 2012-2017 and you are invited to take part.
New Horizons for UK Film outlines the BFI’s proposals for investing Lottery support for UK film and sets out a fresh agenda to capitalise on British creativity and talent.
The proposals cover a wide range of activities for supporting filmmaking, production, development, exhibition, education, skills development and film heritage – with a central focus on building audiences across the UK and on all platforms.
In Memoriam | Young Turkish movie director Seyfi Teoman (1977-2012) passed away in Istanbul today. Seyfi Teoman, who had a motorcycle accident on his birthday on April 16 in Istanbul’s Bakırköy neighborhood, was being treated in the intensive care unit of Istanbul University’s Faculty of Medicine hospital. Teoman, 35, was diagnosed with a cerebral hemorrhage and his health condition stayed as serious.
Mavi Boncuk |
Seyfi Teoman (1977-2012)
After his first film “Tatil Kitabı” (Summer Book), Teoman’s second film “Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz” (Our Grand Despair) competed at the Berlin International Film Festival Berlinale last year for the Golden Bear.
He won the Jury Special Prize and the Best Director of Photography Award at the 30th Istanbul Film Festival, as well as the Best Film Award and Cinema Critics Award at the 16th Nurnberg Turkey-Germany Film Festival.
Teoman was also among the producers of the film “Tepenin Ardı” (Beyond the Hill), which won the Golden Tulip Award at the 31st Istanbul Film Festival on April 15.
After studying economics at Bogaziçi University, Teoman lived in Lodz in Poland for two years, studying film directing at the Polish National Film School, where his tutor and supervisor was acclaimed Polish director Mariusz Grzegorzek. He shot his graduation movie, Apartman (Apartment) in 2004.
Seyfi Teoman has only presented his sophomore directing effort this year; nonetheless, he has learned a lot about the film distribution business in the process. The young filmmaker behind the drama “Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz” (Our Grand Despair), which had its world premiere earlier this year at the Berlin film festival, says filmmakers should settle for “success either in film festivals or at the box office.”
“If your [film] has drawn 5 million viewers [in the box office], you shouldn’t set your sights on collecting all the movie awards. If your film received a certain number of awards and is honored by festivals, you shouldn’t anticipate 5 million viewers,” said Teoman, a member of the İstanbul-based independent and arthouse filmmakers collective Yeni Sinema Hareketi (New Cinema Movement), during an interview this week with the Anatolia news agency.
Teoman made a successful foray into film directing in 2008 with his drama “Tatil Kitabı” (Summer Book), which premiered at that year’s Berlin film festival. The film went on to win numerous awards both nationally and internationally as well as being featured in several international film festivals abroad.
The 33-year-old director also said in the interview with Anatolia that the reception for arthouse films was the same all around the world. “All films that have a universal content and are made with no commercial concerns … receive the same reaction throughout the world, which is low box-office returns. But there might be exceptions to this,” he said, noting that “Sonbahar” (Autumn), Özcan Alper’s directorial debut, and “İki Dil Bir Bavul” (On the Way to School), a documentary that recounts a school year in a Kurdish village in southeastern Turkey, were examples of such exceptions.
“Films that have a certain political content but that at the same time do not compromise cinematic quality have reached a certain success in the box office, because politics is important in people’s lives,” he said. “If Yeşilçam is the descendant of commercial cinema, we represent the other cinema. We are the heirs of Yılmaz Güney,” he added.
Source: 3 May 2011 / TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES., İSTANBUL
Turkish history without subtlety By Mark Jenkins Friday, Apr. 27, 2012
“Making history is no job for cowards,” announces the hero of “Fetih 1453,” a Turkish war epic that’s awash in virility. Even the movie’s principal female character, who poses as a guy to help her adoptive father build state-of-the-art cannons, exemplifies manly virtue.
Battle flicks are big on bravery, of course, and this account of the Turkish conquest of Constantinople doesn’t stint on courageous self-sacrifice. For every soul-stirring clash, however, there’s at least one laugh-out-loud moment. Making history may require only bravado, but making historical movies demands subtlety as well.
The 1453 fall of Constantinople, legend has it, was foretold by Muhammad. So the movie begins with the announcement of Islam’s prophet – not actually shown, since that would be blasphemous – that the Orthodox Christian city will fall. It’s left to young Sultan Mehmet II (Devrim Evin), a classic overachiever, to fulfill the prediction some 800 years later.
“Fetih 1453″ was cut by 25 minutes for American release, but there are still plenty of preliminaries. Relying heavily on CGI, director Faruk Aksoy swoops from Mehmet’s court to Constantinople, Genoa, the Vatican and other grand places, introducing the political powers that support or,, more likely, oppose the sultan’s ambitions. When the locale is Christian, the filmmakers helpfully emblazon just about every piece of clothing and furniture with a cross.
The combat scenes that rouse the last third of the movie employ thousands of people (or their digital avatars). But, like most such epics, “Fetih 1453″ focuses on just a few players. In addition to Mehmet, there’s his friend and sword-fighting coach Hasan (Ibrahim Celikkol), an exemplary warrior who’s guaranteed the spotlight during the final battle.
Hasan loves Era (Dilek Serbest), who was sold into slavery but freed by weapon-maker Urban (Erdogan Aydemir). Era keeps spurning Hasan’s proposals, but once they become comrades in arms, her attraction to him grows. There’s even a kiss, although the movie is careful about such things. Scantily clad dancing girls are kept on the Christian side of the beaded curtain, and Mehmet is reduced to a single wife. (The historical sultan had a few more.)
The movie’s English subtitles sometimes fail it, and perhaps some wit was lost in translation. Given the stilted acting, though, it seems likely that the dialogue is just as clunky in the original. Even Turkish audiences probably giggle when Mehmet solemnly instructs troops headed to a brutal war to “have a safe trip.”
Contains bloody violence. In Turkish with English subtitles.
In the quiet foothills of Turkey, Faik lives an isolated existence. When his second son brings his boys for a visit, Faik takes the opportunity to pontificate about the law of the land, as he sees it. He shares one unsolicited thought after the next, most particularly focusing on the elusive nomads whom he suspects have been trespassing on his property. The day and night wear on, and each member of the clan takes his turn entrusting the film’s audience with his own dark secret.
In his feature debut, Emin Alper demonstrates a level of skill and subtlety in execution that earns him the distinction of a talent to watch. His use of space and setting creates a strikingly ominous narrative out of the simplicity of topography and facial expression. These landscapes—whether Faik’s hills or a twisting grimace in close-up—become the driving dramatic forces within the story. Masterfully evoking tension through isolation, landscape, and unspoken conflict, Alper conveys that what lies beyond the hill may be far less damaging than what is within your walls.
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.
The Crossing | Kavsak Turkey, 2010, 95 Minutes Genre/Subjects: Drama, Family Issues
DIRECTOR: Selim Demirdelen Producer: Turker Korkmaz Screenwriter: Selim Demirdelen Cinematographer: Aydin Sarioglu Principal Cast: Güven Kirac, Sezin Akbasogullari
The hero of Turkish writer/director Selim Demirdelen’s psychological drama is a painfully shy middle-aged accountant named Güven (Güven Kirac), who measures out his life in equal portions of work and family: the highlight of each weekday seems to be an afternoon phone call from his small daughter, assuring her father that she’s home safe from school. But Güven has a secret, we soon learn: he has no daughter, no wife, no family at all. In the wake of tragedy, this bulky, quiet man in a buttoned-up cardigan has constructed an elaborate domestic fantasy to help him cope.
Demirdelen enriches this portrait of loneliness with those of two of Güven’s co-workers, a prickly young man named Haydar (Umut Kurt) and a struggling young mother, Arzu (Sezin Akbasogullari), recently separated from her alcoholic husband. Then there’s Güven’s explosive upstairs neighbor, Vedat (Cengiz Bozkurt), who torments his wife, daughter and ancient mother with screaming rants.
Set alternately in the stifling accountancy office, the dark, rainy streets of Istanbul and the bleak hospital where the various traumas of its characters are revealed, The Crossing is a compelling examination of an ordinary man’s extraordinary capacity for sacrifice and of the mysterious ties that bind us. Güven Kirac’s performance as the anonymous Everyman is beautifully detailed down to the smallest gesture of bewilderment or despair. —Bill Gallo
The programme of the 31st Istanbul Film Festival was announced on Wednesday, 7 March at the press conference held in İKSV Salon. Speakers during the press conference were İKSV Chairman of Board of Directors Bülent Eczacıbaşı, Akbank General Manager Hakan Binbaşıgil and Assistant Director of the Istanbul Film Festival Kerem Ayan.
The festival programme presents a rich content to cinephiles as always. The festival will meet the audience this year with a wide spectrum selections expanding new feature movies of 2011 and 2012, unforgetable classic movies, and masterpieces of master directors, movies having world premieres in Sundance in January and in Berlin in February, National Golden Tulip, International Golden Tulip and FACE Human Rights Competitions, documentaries, and children movies. “Cinema and Music” section planned for the 40th year of İKSV as well as new sections like “Filming Revolution”, “What’s Happening in Greece?” and “A Chinese Film Tradition: WuXia”, “Within the Family” and 15-hour-long special view of Mark Cousins’s The Story of Film: An Odyssey stand out in the festival.The Special Prize of the Jury, which was supported with a monetary award for the first time in 2011, will come to be distributed by Efes this year. Among the films partaking in the Golden Tulip National Competition, the director of the film to win the Special Jury Prize in the memory of Onat Kutlar, will be awarded 30,000 US Dollars by Efes to be used in his/her next film.
This year, the Golden Tulip International Competition Jury will be led by renowned director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who lately won the Special Jury Prize in Cannes Film Festival with his latest film Once Upon A Time in Anatolia. In addition to the Golden Tulip as the Grand Prize of the festival, the jury will also present a director the Special Prize of the Jury for exceptional achievement. The International Competition will be supported by a total of 25,000 Euro monetary prizes to be given by the Eczacıbaşı Group in the memory of Şakir Eczacıbaşı. Of this total amount, 10,000 Euros will be given to the Turkish distributor of the film to earn the Golden Tulip Best Film award.
NATIONAL COMPETITION
Meanwhile, the Golden Tulip National Competition Jury will be headed by poet and writer Murathan Mungan, whose several works have been adapted to theater. Mungan was also the screenwriter of Dağınık Yatak / An Untidy Bed by Atıf Yılmaz, considered a cult film by many. Lead by Mungan, the jury will hand out nine awards including the Best Turkish Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Director of Photography, Best Music, Best Editing, and Special Prize of the Jury.
The film to be selected as the Best Turkish Film will be awarded 150,000 TL, and the Best Director will be awarded 50,000 TL. The Best Actress and Best Actor will be awarded 10,000 TL each.
31. Istanbul IFF | National Competition Films March 31-April 15, 2012
(World Premiers) Ben Uçtum, Sen Kaldın / Mizgin Müjde Arslan Ana Dilim Nerede? / Veli Kahraman Şimdiki Zaman / Belmin Söylemez Ferahfeza / Elif Refiğ
(National Premiers) Tepenin Ardı / Emin Alper Lal Gece / Reis Çelik Babamın Sesi / Orhan Eskiköy & Zeynel Doğan
and in competition
İz-Rêç / M. Tayfur Aydın Can / Raşit Çelikezer Yeraltı / Zeki Demirkubuz Nar / Ümit Ünal
It won the Cannes grand prix – but people have been walking out of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Stuart Jeffries finds him unrepentant
‘The problem with Hollywood,” says Nuri Bilge Ceylan, “is the audience expects to get the answers like a pill. They expect to know not just whodunnit, but the motives of the characters, the how and why. Real life is not like that. Even our closest friend – we don’t know what he really thinks. In films we want more than in real life, everything being made clear. That means this kind of cinema is a lie. I cannot make cinema that way.”
I had asked the 52-year-old Turkish director to explain why his new film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, which won the grand prix at Cannes last year, refuses to provide answers. It’s an epically lugubrious, austerely beautiful 157-minute police procedural in which a murder suspect is driven around the Anatolian steppes at night in a convoy of police cars, to find the place where he and his brother buried their victim. Along the way, we learn lots of increasingly gloomy things: what kind of yoghurt the cops like, how Turkey will need to reform itself to join the EU, that the local doctor likes to quote Russian poetry – but not who did what to whom and why.
“I know my films can be difficult and exasperating,” says Ceylan with a smile as we sit in a London hotel. Indeed. Some people have walked out during the autopsy scene, on account of all the unpleasant squelching that forces viewers to imagine the grisly visuals the camera is refusing to capture.
One of the most striking things about the film, though, is the fact that, while all the protagonists are men, it is women who drive the story. The murder was probably committed because of a woman. The prosecutor’s wife (again probably) committed suicide on the same day her child was born, in revenge for her husband’s infidelity. And, in one key scene, a small-town mayor supplies the investigators with a night-time meal at which his beautiful daughter dispenses tea. The men all seem to have a religious epiphany as they see her candlelit face. What was that about? “If you see a girl like this in London, it wouldn’t influence you. There are many beautiful girls around. In the desert, when a girl like that, at the end of a long night, appears like a madonna in your ordinary world, that moment has the sense of a miracle.”
This notion also helped them solve a script problem. “We couldn’t work out why the guy confesses where the body is at that point. We wanted to find a realistic reason. So we talked with a police chief in Anatolia. And he told this story, ‘Sometimes I’ll beat a suspect for three days and they don’t even say one word. Then they hear a child or see a woman. Suddenly they cry and want to confess everything.’” Because of her beauty and her seeming compassion? “Definitely. In The Brothers Karamazov, you remember, Dmitri wakes up and realises somebody has put a pillow under his head. That makes him confess to a murder he hasn’t committed.”
There are autobiographical elements to the film: the all-male milieu, for instance, is partly based on Ceylan’s experience of military service. But then Ceylan has often plundered his life for material. In 2000′s Clouds of May, about a film-maker incessantly filming his parents, his mother and father played the parents. Ceylan readily admits it was a self-critical film: “In my first film, I had taken all these images of my family and used them. And when I looked at what I’d photographed back in Istanbul I saw that I had taken and given nothing back. My grandmother was trying to talk to me and I wouldn’t listen while I was filming. I was very selfish and I wanted to make a film about that.”
Uzak, two years later, was about a seemingly sophisticated and successful Istanbul photographer called Mahmut (clearly modelled on Ceylan), who is visited by his unemployed, uneducated cousin Yusuf. There’s a terrific scene in which Mahmut puts on a video of a Tarkovskymovie to impress his cousin, who gets bored and leaves. As soon as he does so, Mahmut flicks over to porn. In 2006′s Climates, Ceylan appears opposite his wife in an unremitting drama about a marriage on the skids, again clearly based on his own.
“After a while, I ran out of autobiography,” he says, “so I started making other films.” Three Monkeys, in 2008, was the first, a marvellously taut existential drama about denial and desire in which a politician’s driver takes the fall when his boss kills a pedestrian while asleep at the wheel. The second post-autobiographical film is Once Upon a Time in Anatolia – or it would be if its lead were not so evidently steeped in Ceylan’s melancholic sensibility. “I can’t help that. When you construct a character, you look at the person you know best: yourself.I decorate each character with weaknesses of the human soul and, to check whether those decorations are true, I look at myself.”
Near the end, there’s another miracle. The doctor, after a long irksome night, walks out into the small town where he has lived for a year or so. He sees it as if for the first time: an awning flaps in the wind, the breeze carries a flock of birds into the sky. “That feeling I know very well,” says Ceylan. “Sometimes everything touches you completely differently. That is what the melancholy want – to feel they exist.”
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia Production year: 2010 Country: Rest of the world Runtime: 157 mins Directors: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Cast: Firat Tanis, Muhammet Uzuner, Taner Birsel, Yilmaz Erdogan
