TODAY AT THE GOLDEN ORANGE GALA, THERE WAS A FAIRYTALE STORY FROM GEORGIA AND CHILDREN HEALING THE WOUNDS OF THE EARTHQUAKE THROUGH PLAY

At the Golden Orange Film Festival today, there were two very special films: one fiction, one documentary. “Gondola,” a completely dialogue-free fairy tale, and “Hayal Gücü Oyun Parkı,” colored by children who cling to life through play after the Hatay earthquake

The 62nd International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival featured the premieres of two very special films. The fictional film “Gondola” and the documentary “Hayal Gücü Oyun Parkı,” screened at the Perge Hall of the Atatürk Cultural Centre (AKM), attracted attention not only for their screenings but also for their accompanying discussions.

A film crew of seven people!

After the screening of the German-Georgian film “Gondola,” director Veit Helmer answered questions from the audience.

The first question about the film, which depicts the bond formed between two young women in the fairy-tale atmosphere of the Georgian mountains without dialogue, came from here. The director said he got this idea from Alfred Hitchcock: "There was a section in a book about Hitchcock on how to make a film without dialogue; that influenced me. I also love sound and its proper use. If you use dialogue in a film, it overshadows the sound. Without dialogue, there is ample space for sound."

The director, who mentioned that the idea for a film set in Georgia and featuring a gondola (cable car) came about when they moved to Georgia due to problems they encountered in Azerbaijan during their previous film, said: "When we finished the film in Georgia, the crew said, ‘Please come back and shoot another film.’ One of the producers also mentioned that there were many gondolas in his village and suggested I use them in the film. Working with gondolas, however, is quite challenging because there is only one cabin. Görüntü yönetmeni ile çekimden önce ‘iki gondolun gidip gelişini nasıl gösterebiliriz, diye düşündük. Ekibin bir kısmı ‘asla başaramazsınız’ bile dedi. Limitli bir bütçemiz olduğu için bir kısmını görsel efekt kullanarak yaptık. Aslına bakarsanız filmin senaristi, yönetmeni, yapımcısı, ses tasarımcısı ve ekip için kamyonu kullanan kişiydim! Toplam 7 kişi ile bu filmi çektik”

“We always tried to listen to and understand the children.”

Following the February 6, 2023, earthquake, Nedim Buğral and a group of volunteers set up playgrounds in various locations across Hatay. The project, called “Hayal Gücü Oyun Parkı" (HOP), and inspired by the “flexible play area” approach developed in Europe after World War II, is based on the idea of children transforming waste materials they can easily find in their surroundings into toys. This collective healing process, which began in tent camps just two weeks after the earthquake, has continued in container cities for over two years. The film's directors, Jale İncekol and Nedim Buğral, answered questions after the screening, describing the world of children clinging to life through play, the importance of solidarity, and the transformative power of imagination.

Incekol stated that he decided to make a documentary based on what he witnessed while volunteering in Hatay for the association founded by Nedim Buğral two months after the earthquake. He described what she saw in Hatay as follows: “People were living in tent cities at that time. I started working as Nedim's assistant.” When I observed the children entering and exiting HOP, I saw huge differences. I witnessed someone who had been talking about their losses just five minutes earlier smiling while helping their child at HOP five minutes later. I stayed in touch with Nedim for a year before returning for the film. Nedim is still in Hatay, on the ground. People are still living in container cities. We shot the movie in 2024; the children are still living and growing up in that 21-square-meter space, on that concrete floor.

When asked about the approach they took when working with children, especially those who had been victims of a major disaster, Nedim Buğral said, “We always tried to listen to and understand the children.” We continued: "Everything we discussed in the film as fiction, we did with play workers / through play activities. We created an emotion checklist. There were artists and volunteers from many different disciplines. In the evenings, we sat down and worked on understanding the children's play. Throughout this process, we always tried to listen to and understand the children."