DOCUMENTARIES IN PURSUIT OF THE RECENT PAST, SHORT FILMS SPANNING FROM CURRENT ISSUES TO MYTHOLOGY AND EXCITING FILMS BY CINEMA SCHOOL STUDENTS WERE ON THE GOLDEN ORANGE SCREEN TODAY

The Golden Orange Festival today presented a complete picture of its festivities, featuring films of all genres and topics. Short films, documentaries, and films by film school students brought the young face of Turkish cinema to the big screen.

The 62nd International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival offered a full festival experience today, featuring films from every genre, topic, and perspective. The Atatürk Cultural Centre (AKM), along with the Aspendos and Perge theatres, embraced every facet of cinema.

“There is no such thing as reality; we only have perceptions.”

The documentary “The Making of Michael Petite,” which begins as a film about a writer known for his fiction and then transforms into a work of fiction, drawing attention with its intriguing structure that shifts from behind-the-scenes footage to fiction, was screened at the festival as part of the National Documentary Competition. Following the screening, a discussion took place with director Feyyaz Yıldırım, producer Ferahnaz Ör, and co-producer Melda Çınar.

The director said he didn't plan the project this way from the start, but that it was shaped by chance. Responding to the comment that such a project required great courage, he said, “For me to pursue a project, it has to excite me and make me feel like I'm doing something different. That's something that can only be done by taking risks. So I was motivated from the very beginning.” Producer Ferahnaz Ör, on the other hand, said that the excitement during the project stemmed not from risk but from the excitement of ‘working together’.

Yıldırım answered the question of whether the perspective in the film is a counterpart in his own daily life as follows: "I actually see all of life as fiction. There is no reality, only the small realities we create. To be more concrete, even when we write a story or keep a diary about our daily lives, we write ourselves differently than we are; we write our reflection. There is no concrete reality; there is only the reflection of everything on us and the way we perceive it."

“Sizi rahatsız edebildiysem memnun olurum”

Sabiha Sertel, Turkey's first female journalist, was the subject of “ Roman Gibi”, which was screened at the AKM Perge Hall as part of the National Documentary Competition. The film was inspired by Nur Deriş, Sabiha Sertel's niece, who read the book “Roman Gibi” and was fascinated by it, only to learn that Sabiha Sertel was her grandfather's sister. After the screening, director Tayfun Belet and Nur Deriş answered questions from the audience. Belet said, “This film tells the story of how people in their 50s and 60s were forced to leave the country and how Turkey's most important values went abroad and waited to die there.”

That's why I wanted to disturb you; I'm glad if I did," he said. When asked to comment on the current state of freedom of expression in relation to the raid on the Tan Newspaper, published by Sabiha Sertel and her husband Zekeriya Sertel, Nur Deriş said the following: “What happened to the Sertels, who supported the Republic so much, is happening in this republic, which was founded on beautiful ideas such as freedom and equality, and at a time when the childhood illnesses of this republic continue. These childhood illnesses cannot be cured. This country cannot digest democracy.”

“We followed Nilgün Marmara's language”

The documentary “Nilgün,” featuring contributions from Cezmi Ersöz and Haydar Ergülen, focuses on the life of Nilgün Marmara, one of the most original voices in Turkish literature. Following the screening of the film at the National Documentary Competition, director Tolga Oskar, producer Beyazıt Yüksekdam, art director Ebrarnur Altın, and cinematographer Atakan Demirbozan answered questions from the audience. Oskar, who said they had conducted extensive research on Marmara, stated, “We started this project because she masterfully utilised the possibilities of language and created a semantic structure by rearranging words.” Atakan Demibozan, noting that they avoided positioning Marmara, who is often discussed more for her suicide than her work, in this light in the documentary, said, "We initially used a simpler language to avoid dramatising it. We wanted to focus on his life and who he was as a person rather than his suicide, and we built our visual world around that."

The 2nd Short Film Selection was at AKM Perge.

The second selection of films from the National Short Film Competition was screened at the AKM Perge Hall. Following the screening, director Nuh Lalbay, assistant directors Burak Lalbay and Nesli Özalp, and actors Atilla Acar, Vadi Cirik, and Bahadır Kaytan answered questions about the film “Giderayak.” Nuh Lalbay, who said he made the film based on the advice his son Burak, who also served as his assistant on the film, gave him to “go abroad and save your life,” said, “I didn't try to reach a conclusion on this issue in the film, I just wanted to discuss it.”

The team behind the film “Akşam Yemeği”, including director Okan Akgün, producer-screenwriter Suat Köçer, executive producer Hümam Özkara, and actors Yağmur Ruken Kahraman, Berfin Taş, and Sefa Şenel, appeared before the audience after the screening. Suat Köçer stated that he wrote the screenplay based on the experiences of a friend in his 30s who was under pressure from his family because he was not yet married, while director Okan Akgün announced that he is currently designing the feature-length version of the story.

The team behind the film “Defne,” consisting of director Hamdi Furkan Yıldırım, producers M. Sait Dindar and Faruk Ulusoy, cinematographer Cemal Çimen, and actors Gülşah Büktür and Lidya Akkuş, also met with the audience. The director said he came across the mythological story of the laurel while reading Joseph Campbell's book “The Hero's Journey,” which inspired him to make this film.

The second selection of films from this year's Cinema Schools Student Film Competition was also screened today at the AKM Aspendos Hall. The directors of the film “Sazdan Örülen Hayat”, Zeynep Aslı Yoncu and Zübeyde Melek Algül, Onur Sürek, director of the film “Çukurova’nın Kara Ekmeği”, and Hasan Hüseyin Korkmaz, director of the movie “Seni Görebilecek Miyim Anne?” Abdurrahim Karabulut, director of the film “Tümseğin Uğultusu”, and Musa Uysun, director of “Köye Dönerken”, participated in the discussions following the screenings.