21st Istanbul International Film Festival 2002

This time, to be sure, the FIPRESCI (International Critics) Jury at the 21st Istanbul International Film Festival (13 - 28 April 2002) hit the nail right on the head. They awarded the same Turkish director, Zeki Demirkubuz, for his entries in both the international and the national competition. Then, shortly after the festival closed, the Cannes film festival sounded the same critical note by announcing that it too would invite both films to participate in the Un Certain Regard section. The decision was unusual, to say the least, but so too are the films by this genuine auteur whose vision is stamped on both thematic content and artistic expression. Yazgi (Fate) and Itiraf (Confession) are the first two films in a planned series on »Tales about Darkness«, Zeki Demirkubuz said at a press conference in Istanbul.

       As for the declarations of the FIPRESCI Jury, Fate in the International Competition was cited »for its cool, restrained realism and absurd humour in depicting an indifferent character adrift in a morally judgmental society.« In the National Competition Confession was commended »for its austere portrayal of an emotionally intense marriage torn apart by betrayal.« Inspired by The Stranger, Albert Camus’s novel, Fate is the story of an educated man, an accountant in the customs office, who feels guilty without rhyme or reason for all his acts without even exploring the causes for his state of mind. »I wanted all my life to express my own feeling of guilt,« says Demirkubuz, »and my hatred towards the privileged, particularly to those who are seeking privilege only.« When Musa’s mother dies in the night, he feels no pain, although he loves her, somehow welcoming the relief the loss brings. The same attitude is maintained when he marries, the moreso when he is falsely accused of murdering the wife of his superior and their two young children. At the of the film, however, we learn during a sharp give-and-take interrogation with a prosecutor why he does what he does, although knowing is not really understanding. In Confession Harun, a wealthy and successful engineer, knows that his wife has betrayed him, yet he refuses to believe the evidence because he is afraid of losing her. However, when the pain become unbearable, he decides to confront her in a showdown, a night of bitter accusations and counter-accusations. He wants his wife to »confess« in hopes that the truth will clear his own conscience. Instead, just the opposite happens ­ a dark secret in his own life surfaces to drive him to a confession of his own. »It’s not much of a drawback to live without the knowledge of who we are and what we are living for, without being at least curious of the truth,« Demirkubuz said. »We can even say that this may prove to be good for people of our day. For, on the other hand, the opposite has many drawbacks.&lasquo;

       Altogether, Zeki Demirkubuz plans to make five tales of darkness on such »empty obsessions« as evil and hopelessness in the world. Since he wrote, produced, directed, photographed, and edited Confession with a small team to assist him, while shooting two films in one year, we can take this committed auteur at his word.

Ronald Holloway