The face of an old man. He’s following instructions coming from off camera: »Look at us for a long time without moving.« The man is the director’s father, as we learn from the first test shots, which show him posing shirtless with a look of questioning mischief. When he looks straight at us, an intimacy arises that remains throughout the film.
The apartment block in Istanbul where Faruk has lived for decades has been earmarked for demolition. His stubborn resistance at the property management meetings and the crisis he faces as a result of the inevitable forms the starting point of this fictionalised portrayal. Filmed on location over the course of seven years, Faruk tells the story of an old man whose plans for a peaceful retirement are thwarted by urban gentrification. Aslı Özge uses the depiction of social and cultural changes in Istanbul as a backdrop to explore the connections between people and their environment. How do places leave their mark on us? Faruk has been passing through the streets of his neighbourhood for almost a hundred years. Emre Erkan’s intimate camerawork follows him, and the sound design of ambient urban noise connects us to Faruk’s mind. The film’s nested construction makes its meta-fictional quality immediately apparent. When the director’s on-screen self helps her protagonist with his clothes, we also see the daughter scolding the father. Özge very deliberately blurs the lines between reality and fiction in an attempt to subtly shift the audience’s perception.

Guest: Aslı Özge

In cooperation with Türkische Filmtage Dortmund