Your project has entered in our festival. What is your project about?
I am an anti-war person. I don't think there is a problem in the world that cannot be solved without war. As someone who believes that being a good person can overcome all evil, I wanted to make a film about how love is stronger than war and death. My movie; Questioning life, social pressure, state, laws, war, hunger, love, separation and death, changing the boundaries of love and death, based on the experiences of one of the thousands of soldiers who were sent to war. While doing all this, it is a film that emphasizes that the most important issue is human life.
What are your ambitions with your project?
Societies in underdeveloped countries around the world are governed by turning them into enemies against each other.Leaders know this very well; A society without enemies becomes alienated from war, anger and death and begins to feed on the beauties of life. This is a danger to the system fed by war. To prevent this from happening, new enemies are constantly being created. In this film, as in my other films, I show what is not spoken about.
My biggest goal for this movie is; To raise awareness among the audience against this brutal system that puts human life as a target and benefits only a handful of happy minorities!
Tell us something about your shooting? What pleasantly surprised you?
We were just 2 person on the set. The cameraman and me. We had just a camera and a light. We only had 5 hours to shoot the movie. However, the film was completely ready to shoot in my mind and even the editing was finished for me. It was my biggest chance that I wrote the script because I was the source of everything I wanted to tell and I naturally carrying the whole story. I was the one to hug, I was the writer, director and actor to get along with. All that was left was to turn on the camera and play, and we were good enough for that. We had a very good rapport with cameraman Bilal Sarıkamış. Our microphone was damaged, we thought maybe it would save us, but it didn't. We realized that we would not use the sounds in any way. I had been dubbing long time ago both in Turkey and in London. It was a nice surprise to dub again to my role after so many years. We also worked very well with İlker Demir in post-production. We completed the film with a small budget.
For what group of spectators is your film targeted?
Everyone except children.
Why should distributors buy your film?
Because while this film clearly explains what war is, it also makes the audience a witness an immortal love that has never been seen before in cinema. This movie is a love movie that transcends war and it is unique!
How would you specify your work? What characterizes your film?
World Cinema. War and love movie.
Why did you decided to become a filmmaker?
-I didn't decide on filmmaking, I found myself in filmmaking. My father is film actor, writer and director Necati Er. He worked in Turkish Cinema in different dimensions for approximately 50 years. I spent my childhood on film sets, I was an only child, my father raised me and he took me with him to every job he went to. I was witnessing every aspect of how a movie was shot, and cinema became like one of the games I played in my childhood. When I was 5 years old, they gave me a small role in a movie starring my father, and I was very lucky because my partner was Yıldız Kenter, one of the greatest masters of the theater! (1983-Zulüm) Acting became my way of expressing myself; we used to make films for ourselves in our spare time with my friends at school and on the street. My father wrote Kuşatma, one of the best scripts of Turkish Cinema, in 1986, and I was in the leading role. This movie was such a huge success that it was impossible for me to do anything else.
Who is your role model?
My father and Yılmaz Güney, with whom my father worked in many films.
Which movies are your favorites? Why?
I like Yılmaz Güney's films because he fearlessly expresses his criticism while reflecting the problems and contradictions of the period and society he lives in. Hope, Herd, Father, Friend, Road, Wall, Poor People are films that have become the voice of the people. This is why Yılmaz Güney is still attacked today, because he is still a threat for the authority.
Where do you look for inspiration for your films?
I lived in Turkey until I was 27, then moved to London. However, I never broke away from Turkey. I follow the news in Turkey closely and I know the problems of the society through the radio program I have been doing for 15 years. The place where I draw inspiration is the living conditions in Turkey and the experiences of the oppressed class.
Which topics interest you the most?
Problems of the working class, violence against women, society's insensitivity, discrimination, injustice, society's memory problem, exploitation of faith.
What do you consider your greatest achievement in your career?
I see my movie 'Available Position', which I wrote, directed and starred in in 2021, as the biggest success in my career. I think the biggest reward for a film that deals with the unemployment issue was to be loved in many countries with very different economies and management styles and to be deemed worthy of an award.
What do you consider most important about filming?
Naturalness . The audience should not understand that they are watching a movie, they should think that they are witnessing an event. For me, a good writer, good director and good actor is the one who brings his/her work to the audience and be invisible himself at that moment!
Which film technique of shooting do you consider the best?
The answer to this question depends on the atmosphere you want to create and the effect you want to create. The shooting technique required by the world the director wants to show is the best. The director who captures this is also a good director.
How would you rate/What is your opinion about current filmmaking?
Box office concerns in Turkey prevent producers from taking risks. They got the audience used to this, but now they are falling into repetition in every dimension, stories, faces, shots, dialogues repeating each other... The technique is improving, but the stories are regressing. It takes courage to express the real problems of society, and the number of producers who have that courage is very few. As long as you are concerned about popularity, you will fall behind world cinema.
What can disappoint you in a movie?
Incompatibility. Everything and everyone should be in harmony.
Who supports you in your film career?
What I learned on movie sets in my childhood. I make these films thanks to what I learned there.
