24 hours of a married couple
Monsters. follows a married couple over a 24-hour period and it’s the first feature-length of photographer and award-winning short-filmmaker Marius Olteanu. Following the screening of the film, which questions the gap between who we are and what we seem to be in an increasingly intolerant climate, Olteanu answered audience questions.
About why the film is called “Monsters.” and has punctuation in the title, he said:
We label others, others label us, and we label ourselves, too. We label ourselves as monsters and leave it at that. And sometimes when we give these labels we don’t think further about them and put a period to it. That is the real monster. That period at the end symbolizes how we come to a judgment and leave it at that without giving it a further thought.
There is also this aspect that Arthur thinks he is a monster because he is not like how she wants him to be. His wife knows that Arthur wants to have a child, but she labels herself a monster because she doesn’t want the same thing; and as a couple they are seen and labelled as monsters by the society.
For further information about the film click here.
The Man who Lost His Mother, Breath of Life
David Roux’s first feature film premiered at TIFF. The film, which depicts the dilemma of Doctor Simon who is torn between his profession and beliefs when his mother is hospitalized, is a medical drama. Following the screening of the film, which is featured in the Young Masters section of the Festival, Roux answered audience questions.
It feels like you wanted to touch upon the helplessness that sometimes comes in the face of illness even when you are a doctor.
We are truly helpless against death. The only thing we can do is to accept it with total serenity. In real life I somehow accepted my mother’s death, but my brother had a harder time with it, because he was helpless as a doctor; someone who could help but in this case was unable to.
Why is the film called Doctors in Turkish even though it’s called L’ordre des médecins in French?
Kerem Ayan: We had a hard time translating the title into Turkish. We weren’t quite sure how to translate L’ordre des médecins exactly. It means something like the chamber of doctors but there’s a word play there.
David Roux: When I named the film I didn’t think about the chamber of doctors because it doesn’t have much to do with it, but I think it has a lot to do with religion. The word “ordre (order)” is also used in religion: when you join an order you take an oath and put on a uniform. The doctor is in a certain status, a certain place, and it’s like he is losing his faith at some point in the face of what happens; just like a religious person.
The character is not very religious. Was that a Jewish lament we heard during the death scene? Or did you choose to use it even though he is a non-believer he is still attached to traditions?
The lament is in Yiddish. My mother was not very religious, but she was Ashkenazi Jewish and Jewish culture was always a part of our lives: She used to listen to Yiddish songs. I didn’t want to put religious motifs in the film because I wanted to tell something universal. But that song felt very appropriate because all songs in the Jewish culture are about life and death. Using it felt right since laughing and crying are the extensions of the same thing.
For further information about the film click here.
A Soap Opera Story
Featured in the Antidepressant section, Tel Aviv on Fire is about Salam, a Palestinian who works as a script intern on a soap opera in Israel. The film stars Kais Nashif who won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival. Nashif said that even though the film is a comedy, it is in fact a tragedy when it comes to its subject matter adding that he partially experienced what the character went through when he was living in Palestine. “This could have been a highly disputable film. But I think the support for the film was given for its quality not for the ideas behind it,” said Nashif about the multi-award-winning comedy which received support from the Israeli Film Council and Ministry of Culture, and added that the film has a realistic take on soap operas.
For further information about the film click here.
Musicians and directors met around the same table
Organised by LU Records in the scope of the 38th Istanbul Film Festival “Musicians and Directors around the Same Table” took place at Salon İKSV. Moderated by Yekta Kopan, the talk was attended by musician and producer Ahmet Kenan Bilgiç, director and producer Tolga Karaçelik, musician and producer Ömer Ahunbay, director Kıvanç Baruönü, musician and producer Ender Akay.
During the talk, Kıvanç Baruonü emphasised the importance of the relationship between the director and musician. Ömer Ahunbay stated that scoring a film is a team work that involves the director, script, and editing process: “When scoring a film you have to think about what is best for the film.” According to Ahmet Kenan Bilgiç the score of a film changes according to the mood of the director during production: “The music differs according to each director’s character. The musician should work knowing this fact as well as he knows the dramaturgy of the film.”
Second day on the bridge: Bartu Ben
On its second day Meetings on the Bridge welcomed Bartu Ben and its team. The series’ star and writer Bartu Küçükçağlayan, director Tolga Karaçelik, producer Diloy Gülün and BluTV Content Director Sarp Kalfaoğlu attended the event and talked about the series’ transition into digital from its writing process to its production.
Daily Film Selection:
Bait | 16.00 | Kadıköy movie theatre
Alpha, The Right to Kill | 19.00 | Beyoğlu movie theatre
Daily Documentary Selection:
Cold Case Hammarskjöld | 16.00 | Cinemaximum Zorlu Center
Memory – The Origins of Alien | 21.30 | Beyoğlu movie theatre
Festival in Photos
See daily photos from the festival at http://www.iksvphoto.com/#/folder/aa602o and on our Instagram account.
Images courtesy of IKSV.
