East of the West - Competition 2017 / Blue Silence / Turkey, Belgium 2017
After his release from the military hospital where he was receiving treatment for a past trauma, Hakan tries to resume a normal life and form a proper relationship with his daughter. Excelling for its mature performances and its stylisation of image and sound, the film foregrounds Hakan’s wounded soul and underlines his vehement efforts to break free from his own private prison.
After his release from the military hospital where he was receiving treatment for a past trauma, Hakan tries as best he can to collect fragments of his memory and, through them, create a new life for himself. His greatest desire is to rekindle his relationship with his daughter Melis. He eventually realises that he will have to probe deep into a distressing and painful past and also journey to the heart of Turkey, where the key to his recovery may lie. Bülent Öztürk only gradually reveals the circumstances leading to the hero’s breakdown, thus keeping the viewer in suspense throughout the film. The camera often lingers on the face of actor Teoman Kumbaracıbaşı, who effortlessly mirrors the fine nuances of Hakan’s feelings and inner turmoil. The director doesn’t judge his protagonist, nor does he answer any of the questions raised by his film, leaving an opportunity for the viewer to form his own interpretation. The compelling stylisation of image and sound in this authorial debut foregrounds Hakan’s wounded soul and underlines his vehement efforts to break free from his own private prison.
Ivana Novotná
93 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Bülent Öztürk
/ Screenplay Bülent Öztürk
/ Dir. of Photography Emre Tanyildiz
/ Music Michelino Bisceglia
/ Editor David Verdurme
/ Art Director Hendrik Van Kets
/ Producer Tomas Leyers
/ Production Minds Meet
/ Coproduction Daylight Films, Bantof Film
/ Cast Teoman Kumbaracıbaşı, Roda Canioglu, Korkmaz Arslan
/ Contact Minds Meet
www: www.bluesilence.be
Bülent Öztürk (b. 1975) hails from Bağlarbaşı, a small Kurdish village in southeastern Turkey, where he was born into a family of thirteen children. He fled the country as a political refugee and travelled to Antwerp. In 2011 he gained a master’s degree in film direction and audiovisual arts at RITS School of Arts in Brussels. He has made two documentary films, the critique Talking Stones of Bakacik (Zaman Zaman, 2010) and the poetic Waiting (Beklemek, 2012). His filmography also includes two shorts, Shadow (Sí, 2016) and Houses with Small Windows (2013), which won Best European Short at the Venice IFF in 2013 and was also nominated for a European Film Award in the same category. Blue Silence is his feature film debut.
Minds Meet
Havenlaan 108-110 Avenue du Port, 1000, Brussels
Belgium
E-mail: [email protected]
Bülent Öztürk
Film Director
Tomas Leyers
Producer
Han Spauwen
Other
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