Turkish actor and philanthropist Mert Firat is among the country’s most popular talents, known to international audiences for his roles in romantic blockbuster “The Butterfly’s Dream,” thriller “Pure White,” and Netflix Turkish original “Love 101.” A United Nations Development Program Goodwill Ambassador in Turkey, Firat is a co-founder of Ihtiyac Haritasi (Map of Needs), a website connecting those in need.
On Feb. 6, when the catastrophic earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, killing more than 19,000 by the latest count, Firat’s charity was busy campaigning for war-torn Ukraine. “But now our Ukraine office is campaigning for us,” he says.
Firat spoke to Variety from the city of Antakya where rescuers on Thursday were still pulling survivors from beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings, though after more than three days, hopes of finding many more people alive are beginning to fade.
Whereabouts are you?
I am in Antakya, the capital of Hatay province,...
On Feb. 6, when the catastrophic earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, killing more than 19,000 by the latest count, Firat’s charity was busy campaigning for war-torn Ukraine. “But now our Ukraine office is campaigning for us,” he says.
Firat spoke to Variety from the city of Antakya where rescuers on Thursday were still pulling survivors from beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings, though after more than three days, hopes of finding many more people alive are beginning to fade.
Whereabouts are you?
I am in Antakya, the capital of Hatay province,...
- 2/9/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Joe Odagiri’s They Say Nothing Stays the Same won the Best Film Award in the Turkish gathering's International Feature Film Competition. Turkish first-time director Ali Özel’s feature Steppe has emerged as the winner of the 56th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, snagging 11 awards in the National Feature Film Competition, including the 250,000 Tl Best Film Award. At the leading Turkish gathering, which unspooled from 26 October-1 November, Japanese director Joe Odagiri was also crowned with the Best Film Award in the International Feature Film Competition for They Say Nothing Stays the Same. The National Feature Film Competition jury, headed up by director Zeki Demirkubuz, and comprising Emre Erkmen, Latife Tekin, Mert Fırat and Şebnem Bozoklu, handed the Best Film Award to Ali Özel, who also received the Best Director Award. Demirkubuz mentioned that the decision had been unanimous, stating, “There was one film we applauded, one film that...
The 15th edition of the Turkish indie festival gave prizes to two films that depict Kurdish issues.
The winners of the 15th !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival (Feb 18-28) have been revealed, with two Kurdish-focused films receiving accolades.
The festival’s main competition, the !f Inspired award (which recognises the ‘most inspired director of the year’ and is open to directors on their first or second feature) was presented to Turkish director Ali Kemal Çınar [pictured top] for his Kurdish-language feature Hidden [pictured right, top]
Cinar’s film, which depicts a man going through a sex change and also looks at issues including the roles of women in traditional Kurdish and Turkish societies, is the first from Turkey to ever win the prize, which it jointly shared with Bi Gan’s Chinese feature Kaili Blues [pictured right, middle], about a man who embarks on a journey to look for his brother’s abandoned child. The two films will split a prize of $10,000.
The !f Inspired...
The winners of the 15th !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival (Feb 18-28) have been revealed, with two Kurdish-focused films receiving accolades.
The festival’s main competition, the !f Inspired award (which recognises the ‘most inspired director of the year’ and is open to directors on their first or second feature) was presented to Turkish director Ali Kemal Çınar [pictured top] for his Kurdish-language feature Hidden [pictured right, top]
Cinar’s film, which depicts a man going through a sex change and also looks at issues including the roles of women in traditional Kurdish and Turkish societies, is the first from Turkey to ever win the prize, which it jointly shared with Bi Gan’s Chinese feature Kaili Blues [pictured right, middle], about a man who embarks on a journey to look for his brother’s abandoned child. The two films will split a prize of $10,000.
The !f Inspired...
- 2/29/2016
- ScreenDaily
Istanbul event will host a total of 23 gala screenings, including the latest films from Charlie Kaufman and Jean-Marc Vallee, as well as a David Bowie tribute programme.Scroll down for the full line-up
!f Istanbul Independent Film Festival has revealed its programme for the 2016 edition (February 18-28).
Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa, which premiered at Telluride last year, and Jean-Marc Vallee’s Demolition, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015, will open and close the festival respectively.
!f Istanbul - in its 15th edition - will host screenings, competitions and events dedicated to bringing the best of independent film to the Turkish city.
Other gala presentations will include Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, Gaspar Noé’s Love 3D, Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room and Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s BAFTA-nominated The Assassin.
In memory of the late musician David Bowie, the festival will show remastered versions of his films The Man Who Fell To Earth and The Hunger...
!f Istanbul Independent Film Festival has revealed its programme for the 2016 edition (February 18-28).
Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa, which premiered at Telluride last year, and Jean-Marc Vallee’s Demolition, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015, will open and close the festival respectively.
!f Istanbul - in its 15th edition - will host screenings, competitions and events dedicated to bringing the best of independent film to the Turkish city.
Other gala presentations will include Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, Gaspar Noé’s Love 3D, Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room and Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s BAFTA-nominated The Assassin.
In memory of the late musician David Bowie, the festival will show remastered versions of his films The Man Who Fell To Earth and The Hunger...
- 1/29/2016
- ScreenDaily
The Butterfly's Dream, Turkey's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : None Yet. Production Company: Bkm Film
Attempting to decrypt, explain, and capture the complexity of the human experience has been the eternal mission of writers. To translate into words the enormity of what surrounds mankind entails the specific talent of using something as complex and rule-bound as language to makes sense of something as unsystematic,mysterious and messy as life. Of all the brave souls that undertake such task, poets, novelists, and philosophers carry on their shoulders all the existentialism avoided by fact-based scribes in journalism or research. Their literary works are as subjective as can be, and interpret the world from a personal standpoint Perhaps that is why connecting to a poem written in the distant past speaks of the writer’s talent. They, like any artist, have to make their unique perception into something universally comprehensible. The difference is that in their arsenal they have as only tools the fixed meaning of words, which they must mold into poetry. Undeniably, the beauty of poems, and even more the poets themselves, fascinates director Yilmaz Erdoğan, so he decided to create his own visual verses in his epic period drama The Butterfly’s Dream.
Set during World War II in Zonguldak, Turkey, this is the real life story of two young poets forgotten by history whose writing developed through strenuous adversity. Muzaffer (Kivanç Tatlitug), the optimist romantic, and Rüştü (Mert Firat) the pessimist dreamer, are a team of aspiring writers whose brotherly camaraderie is based upon their shared loved for the written word and their mutual misfortune. In a time when compulsory labor was imposed on villagers and tuberculosis was rampant among the impoverished population, the two of them remained cheerful that one day their dreams of being published and their poetic vision would materialize. Living in poverty and ill with the terrible respiratory disease, both men write as a form of therapeutic catharsis in the face of so much misery. Advised by their families to pursue other more productive professions, their only encouragement comes from their supportive teacher, and acclaimed poet, Behcet Necatigil (played by director Erdoğan himself).
After casually meeting beautiful Suzan (Belçim Bilgin) , the daughter of a wealthy and influential man, the poets make a bet. To decide whom she likes the most they each write a poem for her to choose blindly which one she prefers. Visibly more interested in her, Muzaffer strives to get her attention. Once the lighthearted vagabonds befriend her, she agrees to star in a no-budget play Rüştü about a pair of doomed lovebirds in the forced labor hell of the mines. Their short-lived creative happiness comes to an end once Suzan’s father is informed of the boys’ sickness. Still, the separation only pushes Muzaffer to need her more. Because of their debilitated health, and helped by their loyal teacher, the poets are admitted to a sanitarium, where the course of their lives is altered. Falling in love while facing the possibility of never conquering the long-awaited recognition becomes both their inspiration and their death sentence.
Taking its title from a ancient passage by Chinese thinker Chuang Tzu , in which he pondered on a dream he had where he was a butterfly.Erdoğan’s film deals with the same nature of reality and the things, like art, that serve as antidote to mitigate the pain and hardships one must withstand. Tzu couldn’t be certain if he had dreamt to be the flying insect or if he was really a butterfly that dreamt it was human. There is nothing absolute and everything exist in an always shifting transformative state. The poets couldn’t foresee the future, they couldn’t wake up from their destiny - whether this was a dream or a nightmare. However, they could embellish their existential agony with the sheer joy of their passion for writing. They became masters at speaking of sadness with voices cheerful grace. Tatlıtuğ is splendid as boundlessly positive Muzaffer as is his charismatic sidekick played by Firat. Together with the rest of the noticeably invested cast, they present a movie that despite its overall grandeur, is about their individual wandering, suffering, and redemptive motivations along life’s uncertain roads.
Crafted with the splendor of any Western period film, Yılmaz Erdoğan’s historical feature is classically stunning. Its impeccable photography adorns the frames with a delightful color palette and displays the elaborate sets and production design. This is top-notch filmmaking utilized to retell profoundly meaningful material, it is the perfect mix of visual exuberance and delicate storytelling. Irresistibly lyrical from start to finish, The Butterfly’s Dream is ravishingly elegant, and it is propelled by the rapturous aesthetic bestowed onto every aspect of the piece. Like the most uplifting, yet heartbreaking lines ever written about love, the film entrances the viewer and pays respect to its powerful characters, to their sadness, and beautiful unfulfilled hopes.
Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...
Attempting to decrypt, explain, and capture the complexity of the human experience has been the eternal mission of writers. To translate into words the enormity of what surrounds mankind entails the specific talent of using something as complex and rule-bound as language to makes sense of something as unsystematic,mysterious and messy as life. Of all the brave souls that undertake such task, poets, novelists, and philosophers carry on their shoulders all the existentialism avoided by fact-based scribes in journalism or research. Their literary works are as subjective as can be, and interpret the world from a personal standpoint Perhaps that is why connecting to a poem written in the distant past speaks of the writer’s talent. They, like any artist, have to make their unique perception into something universally comprehensible. The difference is that in their arsenal they have as only tools the fixed meaning of words, which they must mold into poetry. Undeniably, the beauty of poems, and even more the poets themselves, fascinates director Yilmaz Erdoğan, so he decided to create his own visual verses in his epic period drama The Butterfly’s Dream.
Set during World War II in Zonguldak, Turkey, this is the real life story of two young poets forgotten by history whose writing developed through strenuous adversity. Muzaffer (Kivanç Tatlitug), the optimist romantic, and Rüştü (Mert Firat) the pessimist dreamer, are a team of aspiring writers whose brotherly camaraderie is based upon their shared loved for the written word and their mutual misfortune. In a time when compulsory labor was imposed on villagers and tuberculosis was rampant among the impoverished population, the two of them remained cheerful that one day their dreams of being published and their poetic vision would materialize. Living in poverty and ill with the terrible respiratory disease, both men write as a form of therapeutic catharsis in the face of so much misery. Advised by their families to pursue other more productive professions, their only encouragement comes from their supportive teacher, and acclaimed poet, Behcet Necatigil (played by director Erdoğan himself).
After casually meeting beautiful Suzan (Belçim Bilgin) , the daughter of a wealthy and influential man, the poets make a bet. To decide whom she likes the most they each write a poem for her to choose blindly which one she prefers. Visibly more interested in her, Muzaffer strives to get her attention. Once the lighthearted vagabonds befriend her, she agrees to star in a no-budget play Rüştü about a pair of doomed lovebirds in the forced labor hell of the mines. Their short-lived creative happiness comes to an end once Suzan’s father is informed of the boys’ sickness. Still, the separation only pushes Muzaffer to need her more. Because of their debilitated health, and helped by their loyal teacher, the poets are admitted to a sanitarium, where the course of their lives is altered. Falling in love while facing the possibility of never conquering the long-awaited recognition becomes both their inspiration and their death sentence.
Taking its title from a ancient passage by Chinese thinker Chuang Tzu , in which he pondered on a dream he had where he was a butterfly.Erdoğan’s film deals with the same nature of reality and the things, like art, that serve as antidote to mitigate the pain and hardships one must withstand. Tzu couldn’t be certain if he had dreamt to be the flying insect or if he was really a butterfly that dreamt it was human. There is nothing absolute and everything exist in an always shifting transformative state. The poets couldn’t foresee the future, they couldn’t wake up from their destiny - whether this was a dream or a nightmare. However, they could embellish their existential agony with the sheer joy of their passion for writing. They became masters at speaking of sadness with voices cheerful grace. Tatlıtuğ is splendid as boundlessly positive Muzaffer as is his charismatic sidekick played by Firat. Together with the rest of the noticeably invested cast, they present a movie that despite its overall grandeur, is about their individual wandering, suffering, and redemptive motivations along life’s uncertain roads.
Crafted with the splendor of any Western period film, Yılmaz Erdoğan’s historical feature is classically stunning. Its impeccable photography adorns the frames with a delightful color palette and displays the elaborate sets and production design. This is top-notch filmmaking utilized to retell profoundly meaningful material, it is the perfect mix of visual exuberance and delicate storytelling. Irresistibly lyrical from start to finish, The Butterfly’s Dream is ravishingly elegant, and it is propelled by the rapturous aesthetic bestowed onto every aspect of the piece. Like the most uplifting, yet heartbreaking lines ever written about love, the film entrances the viewer and pays respect to its powerful characters, to their sadness, and beautiful unfulfilled hopes.
Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...
- 12/10/2013
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Revenge Comes To Turkey A local Turkish version of Revenge will trade Dune Beach for the Bosphorus. Disney Media Distribution says the local production will be titled Intikam and air on the country’s biggest free-to-air net, Kanal D, in early 2013. Kanal D and Discovery are co-producing. Turkish actress Beren Saat will play the Emily Thorne role with Mert Firat as the Daniel Grayson character. Twenty-two episodes of the Turkish take on ABC Studios’ hit guilty pleasure are scheduled for Season One. Other re-versioned ABC shows produced in Turkey include Desperate Housewives and Private Practice. Warner Bros, Canal+ Group Announce Output Deal Canal+ Group and Warner Bros. Entertainment France Sas announced the exclusive agreement today. It grants exclusive Pay TV rights to Warner Bros.’ first run movies and to library features on all Canal+ Group Pay-tv channels (Canal+, Cine+, Comédie+ and Jimmy) and their associated catch-up services. Beginning in September...
- 10/8/2012
- by NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor
- Deadline TV
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