The Golden Orange National and International Feature Film Competitions are continuing with tremendous excitement. As the latest domestic productions and the most successful examples of world cinema meet moviegoers, filmmakers are also meeting with audiences in Antalya.
The Golden Orange competition is nearing its conclusion; on Friday, the festival wrapped up the day with one national and one international competition film. Of course, documentaries, short films, student films, and national and international screenings outside the competition were also on the screens on the final day of the cinematic celebration.
The final National Competition film in the screening programme, “Wait for Us in Brussels” (Bekle Bizi Brüksel), met audiences at the Aspendos Hall of the Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM). Following the screening, director Necmi Sancak, art director Zeynep Koloğlu, and actors Sermet Yeşil, Caner Cindoruk, Hande Doğandemir, Tekin Ezgüten, Cem Sürgit, Uğur Uzunel, Deniz Dumanlı, and Emre Bulut answered audience questions.
Offering a portrait of the country through comments made aboard a hijacked plane, in a news studio, and at a café on the day of the elections, the film is a “what if” interpretation of an actual event. The director explained:
“On the day of the municipal elections, a flight from Ankara to Istanbul was hijacked. By coincidence, a very close friend of mine was on that plane, while I was studying abroad at the time. My friend called, sobbing! Saying, ‘Our plane has been hijacked.’ Who hijacked it, how did it happen? There was nothing on the news! We asked who had hijacked it, and he said: a mentally ill person who thought he was writing a book, set in Romania, had decided to hijack the plane to promote his book. Naturally, we started laughing; my friend was crying, and we were laughing. But then I began to wonder what it would have been like if this incident had made the news, and that’s how this story came about.”
Caner Cindoruk: “I hadn’t read such an original story in years”
Caner Cindoruk, one of the film’s actors, said he was impressed as soon as he first read the story, because he “hadn’t read such an original story in years”:
“I really liked how the people who hijack the plane begin to connect with these two ‘mad’ men and start to transform through the process alongside them. Actors are hungry for such strong characters. You don’t come across them in every film, so I was very excited. By the way, I even saw that excitement in the eyes of our dear Zihni Göktay, who is no longer with us and couldn’t see our film—as if he were doing something for the first time, though it turned out to be his last. I’d like to ask for a round of applause for him, too; I wish he could have seen it, I wish he were sitting here. Returning to the film, I also loved its dark-comedy narrative, because I’ve generally been involved in dramas. So I found exactly the story and screenplay I was looking for. I loved these two men as well. Because what is someone we call ‘mad’? It’s actually just a tiny line. Sometimes we’re on the other side of that line, sometimes on this side. I think everyone in our country is now very close to that line; it’s hard not to lose your mind.”
Sancak, noting that the film continued to be written during shooting, said the actors also contributed to its story:
“The screenplay is nothing more than a roadmap for me. It develops and changes with every team that joins, and I try to discover as much as possible on set. For example, Caner wrote the story that Sacit tells entirely himself! During the studio shoot, at one point I left everything to Cem, Uğur, and Hande. I said, ‘Go at each other; let whatever happens happen.’ I can say that almost half of the dialogue emerged right there. I had planned the film to be 105 minutes, but the first cut came out at nearly 160 minutes. Because we couldn’t stop each other!”
A story of a steadfast father from Tunisia
Today, the festival also hosted “Round 13” in the International Competition section. Following the screening, director Mohammed Ali Nahdi and actor Afif bin Mahmoud answered questions from the audience.
The director, who said he came across the story of the film—about a boxing champion past his glory days who enters the toughest ring of his life in the hope of finding money for his son’s treatment—in a hospital, said:
“I’m actually an actor; I wanted to portray a Tunisian boxer. But that was 15–20 years ago. Since then, I’ve gained experience in television, cinema, and theatre. I encountered the story behind this film in a public hospital. Three or four years ago, when I went to the hospital, I came across a sick child and his mother. The family was struggling to keep the child alive. That image never left my mind, and that’s why I wanted to turn it into a film.”
Asked how she prepared for this demanding role as an actor and a mother of two, Afif bin Mahmoud replied:
“In all my roles, I always try to draw a clear line between myself and the characters I portray. I made a plan for this role by having long conversations with our director. If I can’t make that distinction, I’ll be ruined! I’d like to say something about our child actor: they seem practically born to be an actor, and are very intelligent and talented. They memorized not only their own role but the entire screenplay. Their intelligence made working with them very easy, and I expect them to become a good actor in the future.”
Agreeing with an audience member’s comment, “It was wonderful that the father never gave up and kept going. In such situations, fathers usually leave,” the director said:
“You’re right; in such situations, fathers usually give up. In the film, too, the nurse at the hospital says, ‘Fathers usually leave.’ But the woman played by Afif says, ‘No. This father won’t leave; he won’t.’ Do you know why he didn’t leave? Because if I were in the same situation, I wouldn’t leave.”
“Dance with the Jackals 8” at the Golden Orange
The eighth film in Murat Şeker’s “Dance with the Jackals” series, “The Stuttgart Invasion” (Şututgart Çıkarması), also screened before audiences on Friday evening as part of the Gala Screenings. Following the screening, director Murat Şeker, screenwriter Ali Tanrıverdi, and actors Şevket Çoruh, Didem Balçın, Tim Seyfi, Timur Acar, and Hakan Bilgin took part in a discussion.
Director Murat Şeker responded to the question, “Dance with the Jackals has continued to make people laugh for 16 years. What has changed while writing, conceiving, and acting in Dance with the Jackals, and how have all these changes affected you?”
“We were braver in the film we made in 2010; we can no longer act quite so boldly. The 16 years of change in our country have changed us all. But the good thing is that we are still together, so there is still hope. Life goes on; keep fighting!”
“I’m a careful, calculating person, but I couldn’t have known we’d make an eighth film”
Şeker agreed with an audience member’s comment that the foundations of the Dance with the Jackals series had been laid in the director’s first film, “Two Super Films in One” (İki Süper Film Birden), and said:
“It was in this very hall; ‘Two Super Films in One’ was first screened here in 2006 as a competition film. It was the story of a director who tried but failed to make the film of his dreams. Tim Seyfi played the character Necati Tüfek; we’re still together today, and Murat Akkoyunlu is still here. Of course, Necati’s character bore traces of me: a mad director who wanted to make an experimental film that would shake Europe. But remember what the character played by Atilla said there: ‘Come on, son, drop this stuff. Look, we’re starting a great series: Dance with the Jackals. Come and shoot this instead.’ I’m a somewhat careful, calculating person, but I couldn’t have known that one day we’d make the eighth film. I haven’t given up on my experimental film that will shake Europe, but Europe itself seems likely to be shaken in an experimental way; we don’t need to shake it.”
Tim Seyfi, who has worked with Şeker since his first film, said: “There’s a saying in German: if you liked the film, tell all your friends; if you didn’t, tell your enemies. Please tell your friends about it.”
Actor Timur Acar said, “When we set out on this journey, we really didn’t think we’d make it to an eighth film or that we’d watch our film at the Golden Orange. Şevket abi used to say, ‘We’ll make 10,’ but I didn’t believe him; now we’re at eight. It’s wonderful to go on this journey with this team, and wonderful to be here with you.”
Şevket Çoruh and Hakan Bilgin also expressed their pleasure at watching the film at the Golden Orange.
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