The Great Meeting Of Golden Orange Has Started; Movies Audiences, Teams Are All In The Halls!
The 61st International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival organized by the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality relieved the longing; the halls were reunited with their films, film crews and audiences! On the first day of the festival, the film crews answered the questions of the audience after the screenings of the National Competition films “Ayşe” and “Galata”, the National Documentary Special Screening “Gençlik Tiyatro” and “Oya” and the International Non-Competition section “Dirty Boy”.
A difficult film of a true story: Ayşe
The National Competition film “Ayşe” tells the story of Ayşe, who comes to a turning point with the marriage proposal she receives while living with her brother who has Down syndrome. After the screening at the AKM Aspendos Hall, the audience’s questions were answered by director Necmi Sancak, screenwriter Ahmet Sancak and actors Menderes Samancılar, Binnur Kaya, Ali Seçkiner Alıcı and Rıdvan Sancak. One of the masters of Turkish cinema, Menderes Samancılar, said that he accepted the project with pleasure because he saw that ‘the film had a problem’ when he read the script. Reminding the principle of ‘there is no big or small role’, Samancılar said, “It is our duty to gladly take part in such projects to solve our problems.” Drawing attention to the fact that making films is becoming increasingly difficult, actor Ali Seçkiner Alıcı explained his involvement in the project with the words, “When I saw Binnur Kaya and Menderes Samancılar, I said ‘OK’ unconditionally.” Alıcı continued his words by saying, “There is a master there, and here we have a valuable actress who has presented incredible examples and characters with her acting; these two factors are very important. In addition, it is very important for me that it is the first film.” Binnur Kaya, who described the film as “a difficult film to watch”, explained her words as follows: “There is nothing that sells the film; there is no music, there is no aesthetic actor. People even have to read the running credits without music. I say they have to read them because people usually leave the theater while they are running. In this sense, I really liked Necmi's morality. I also congratulate him for his courage. I like being in risky business. Because they tried things that no one else has tried before." Kaya explained acting with Rıdvan Sancak with the words, "Not everyone is as lucky as me. Rıdvan is a great partner, he is disciplined." Director Necmi Sancak, who stated that they wrote the story of the film inspired by his cousin Fatma and Rıdvan, said that after trying to bring the film to life for 2-3 years, they reached out to Kaya and then worked together on the script. Sancak said about this process, "It was very educational for me. He is truly a school; he taught me a lot with both his knowledge of cinema and his creative side."
The story of those who do not fit into the mold; Galata
Another "National Competition" film of the day was "Galata." The film, which draws a city and identity picture from the walks of a model famous for her scandalous life and a man she coincidentally meets who has left his home on the streets of Galata, was answered by the audience’s questions after the screening at the AKM Aspendos Hall. Demirkol, who summarized the film as, “The most important starting point was our discomfort with the exclusion of people who do not fit into certain molds,” continued as follows: “A film that discusses certain things that may be found deviant, that not everyone will accept. Its name is ‘Galata’ after all; there is something we want to say and show about the city! We worked a lot on this too; what kind of city perception we will create, how we can convey this within the film without turning into a documentary cinematographically. From our camera angles to which lens we will use, to depth of field,” Kenan Mansur Doğru, who approved of Demirkol, said, “It was a difficult film. "It was a challenging film in itself, both for the audience and for the shooting. We actually tried to try something; we tried to create a world for ourselves, both in terms of acting, art, cinematography and music. How happy it was if it was received," he said.
Challenging the depths of darkness; Dirty Boy
The festival also had a guest from Austria today. Actor-writer-director Doug Rao’s first feature film, “Dirty Boy”, made its Turkey premiere in the International Out of Competition section and the film’s lead actor Stan Steinbichler answered questions after the screening at Paribu Cineverse Migros AVM Konyaaltı. Steinbichler explained the preparation process for the film, which is about Isaac, an introverted schizophrenic, who tries to prove his innocence by solving the mystery behind the events he is accused of and his struggle to save the lives of others, and the character he plays: “I talked to abused victims. I talked to a lot of victims. The film goes into great depth in terms of character analysis. I went through a long and difficult rehearsal process. For this reason, I didn’t have much difficulty when the set started. But the hardest part for me was the scenes like opening the door twenty times and thirty times. The real challenge was getting the character out. So if he was going to do something crazy, it shouldn’t be something very classic or cliché. But that’s what attracted me. Such a different role is important both personally and in terms of his career. I don’t know if I can play such an important role again.”
A legacy from the youth of 1953 to today’s youth: Youth Theater
The talk of “Youth Theater”, which was included in the Special Documentary Screening program of the festival, was attended by the director of the film, Nurgül Bayram, and the participants of the documentary, Aslı Öngören, Yasemin Arpa and Kenan Mortan at the AKM Perge Hall. The director of the documentary, Nurgül Bayram, who tells the story of the Youth Theater, which was founded on May 19, 1953 and played a role in the training of many valuable names that we call doyens today, said, “I made this documentary for the youth.” Bayram explained the reason for this as follows: “Under what conditions did our masters, those who created theater today, the team that first started contemporary theater, folk theater, work? This was missing in the history of Turkish theater. It was a date that existed in the memories of Cüneyt Türel, Metin Serezli, Tuncel Kurtiz but that they talked about among themselves.” Aslı Öngören, who stated that she agreed with the director’s goal, expressed her reservations about this with the following words: “I hope the young people will see that light that still shines in their eyes. Most of them don’t have it. Because my mother told me: I feel so sorry for you, you have so many opportunities but the hope we had in our time is less in your generation. I am very worried that it will gradually decrease.” Mortan thanked the director with the words, “I salute him with enthusiasm for making us taste the spirit of solidarity and cooperation again, for bringing us together and paying for it from his own pocket, for giving us these 15 years,” and also shared additional information about the documentary: “Nurgül filmed my rector, Professor Yılmaz Büyükerşen, with a hidden camera while he was coming and going. He later edited it and presented it to the professor with a small text. I think there will be a screening of this in Eskişehir soon. I know it will also be shown on YouTube.” Yasemin Arpa, who stated that there is a 900-page background behind the 90-minute film, enough to make a book, described the working processes that coincided with the pandemic period with the words, “We were locked up and trapped at home. From there, it was as if we were teleported back to an era of utopia.” In response to a question about the production process of the documentary, the director spoke as follows: “One day, Can Kolukısa and I were sitting together; he said, ‘Do you know the Youth Theater?’ I didn’t know at all. There is no documented information on the internet either. I went to Istanbul University. They only gave me a photo of the gate of Istanbul University in the archive. I went after the names in the photo one by one, it took 5 years.”
The world will now recognize the handiwork and eye-candy; Oya
There was another production in the National Documentary Special Screening program today; “Oya” directed by Sevinç Baloğlu. Director Sevinç Baloğlu, producer Adnan Memiş and project coordinator Muhittin Uzal attended the talk held after the screening of the film at the AKM Perge Hall. Adnan Memiş, who stated that although the idea for the documentary came from him, he was only able to realize the project with the participation of Sevinç Baloğlu, said, “After the first meeting with Ms. Sevinç, I sent her all the materials I had. We didn’t hear anything for a while. When we met again, she was a thousand times more knowledgeable about the subject than I was.” Project coordinator Muhittin Uzal stated that their goal with the documentary was to introduce this art to the world: “Based on Adnan Memiş’s collection, we want to introduce this little-known folk art to the world. Why? This is a heritage that all people in the world should embrace.”