Turkish writer-director Gürcan Keltek (Meteors, Gulyabani) has to date centered on shorter movies and documentaries. On Thursday, he introduced the world premiere of his fiction characteristic debut New Daybreak Fades (Yeni șafak solarken), a contemplation on sanity, to the competitors program of the 77th version of the Locarno Movie Competition.
The movie’s cinematographer is Peter Zeitlinger (Encounters on the Finish of the World), identified for his collaborations with the likes of Abel Ferrara, Ulrich Seidl, and particularly Werner Herzog. The film’s forged consists of Cem Yiğit Üzümoğlu, Ayla Algan, Erol Babaoğlu, Suzan Kardeş, Dilan Düzgüner, and Gürkan Gedikli.
“New Daybreak Fades displays on the thought of madness being one other social assemble, portraying the principle protagonist’s final days earlier than a psychological breakdown,” the press package for the film highlights. “It has been years since Akın has been out and in of the hospital. He’s relentless, offended, and shell-shocked from being caught within the system. Since his discharge, he’s effectively conscious that his previous life is lengthy gone. He has grow to be unable to depart his household home besides for infrequent visits to non secular monuments in Istanbul. Throughout these visits, he falls right into a state of ecstasy as he tries to take refuge in God. These divine buildings set off one thing in him. As he loses contact along with his true self, his thoughts shifts into one other actuality.”
Try a teaser for the movie beneath.
Earlier than his arrival in Locarno, Keltek took time to talk to THR’s Georg Szalai through Zoom about how the film developed from a documentary to a fiction movie, the significance of Istanbul as a personality, how key the sound and music (from British creator Son of Philip) are to assist discover the protagonist’s frame of mind and his ideas on sanity and faith.
You’ve gotten largely accomplished documentary work to date. Why did you resolve to alter issues up and take a fiction method to your new film?
After I was pitching this movie initially, it was about an actual character I used to be hanging out with him. As a documentary filmmaker, I wished to point out the viewers how a [mental health] assault takes place over a few days and the way these assaults are available waves. So this was my first plan. Then my fundamental character had a extremely troublesome interval. He couldn’t exit, he couldn’t meet with folks. He has these fears and visions in his head. So I couldn’t make it occur.
Then, I made a decision to make a fiction movie. However coming from documentary filmmaking, the methods of fiction filmmaking don’t come naturally to me. The entire thing modified financially, with the actors and every part. So I simply wished to experiment with the thought of bringing a documentary thought to the desk and making a fiction movie out of it.
Due to that, we shot it like a documentary really. We went right into a majority of the areas, some very non-public and particular locations, in Istanbul like a guerrilla. So we shot there, and we bought actual reactions. Additionally, I let accidents occur that ended up within the movie, for instance, a few of the folks’s reactions, and actors’ reactions. So, I began it as a documentary, then jumped to a fiction movie, and I ended up with this. It took 4 years, and it turned out extra emotional than I used to be planning it to be.
What drew you to the topic of sanity?
To start with, it’s a common topic. Each household has a number of relations affected by it, and it doesn’t matter what sort of social or ethnic background you could have. It’s common. I additionally wished to dig into some stuff in my nation. For instance, I used to be questioning sanity and the way we go about it, each socially and politically. I assumed I might use psychological well being or madness as a metaphor for some sort of political commentary. However I didn’t need to make a immediately politically themed movie as a result of I used to make political documentaries, so I didn’t need to go into direct political commentary. I simply wished to depart some stuff open so that folks might speculate and focus on.
It’s additionally a very good topic to query the place we’re going as a inhabitants typically. I’ve this drawback in my household too. I’ve skilled since my childhood some members of my household coping with [mental health], so I wished to discover this topic. I imagine it’s crucial how we see ourselves as a sane individual or an insane individual, and who decides that. And I additionally wished to discover how folks can get caught within the [mental health care] system in the event that they go right into a remedy course of. Generally, that makes issues worse.
So additionally, that topic was vital for me to to make connections between turning into an artist and protecting your sanity.
So that you wished to additionally discover the definitions of sanity and the way they depend upon society or tradition?
How we resolve if a selected individual is insane or not will depend on the tradition. I additionally thought turning into insane could also be the easiest way to cope with at the moment’s social local weather and emotional buildings, wherever we might reside. I additionally wished to make a commentary that we as a complete are shedding our sanity and the way we understand actuality. We one way or the other have misplaced consensus alongside the way in which. So the entire system has grow to be insane. So I simply wished to create this world to mirror on these concepts.
Istanbul is a fundamental character in your movie. We see the protagonist strolling and biking by the town, and its landscapes appear to mirror his frame of mind…
Sure, Istanbul is likely one of the characters within the movie. When the principle character sees the large Byzantine or Muslim buildings in Istanbul, large divine buildings, it one way or the other triggers one thing in him. He desires to be a part of one thing holy however he isn’t. He’s principally refusing the truth that he’s simply an peculiar individual with psychological instabilities. He desires to think about himself as a extremely particular individual. In these sorts of conditions, artwork and madness are coming from the identical supply. And faith can be coming from the identical supply. Delusions of grandeur are coming from the identical place. He desires to see himself as vital. And when he goes to these locations, he feels vital and particular. Accepting the truth that the other is true could be very troublesome for him. That’s why movie depends on structure, the outside and different actual areas in Istanbul. When folks have these psychotic assaults, generally they’ll’t keep in. They really feel some sort of cabin fever. So he’s all the time out, he’s all the time on the run. What he experiences is principally some sort of out of doors paranoia.
‘New Daybreak Fades’
Courtesy of Locarno Movie Competition
You’ve gotten touched on this psycho-geographic method in previous movies, proper? A few of these scenes of the protagonist transferring by Istanbul in New Daybreak Fades really feel very lengthy, which I assume you probably did for a motive…
It’s a topic that I’m attempting to know and dig into. And I agree with you that a few of the scenes are longer than they need to be. His understanding of time is totally different from ours. So generally he spends lots of time in these locations, longer than a vacationer or native would as a result of he’s ready. He’s attempting to take refuge in God and he’s on the lookout for an indication to hold onto in order that he can create his personal narrative in his thoughts. The movie is principally the theater of his thoughts.
He’s imagining a cult. Istanbul’s historical past begins with the pagans after which goes on to Christians and Muslims. You may see all of those faces there. The archeological website we see within the final scene of the movie, they simply found, and it’s a pagan place. It’s the muse of Istanbul. They are saying that when the primary pagan clergymen got here there, they turned blind as a result of it was so stunning. But it surely was a really fashionable tradition for that age, they even had lots of fashionable instruments and stuff like that.
However there’s a spiritual side to the entire metropolis that you would be able to see there, there are nonetheless traces of Christianity and paganism, and because the Ottoman Empire all this Muslim custom. So there’s this psycho-geographical side of Istanbul. I might say Istanbul is the principle character within the movie. It’s there with its magnificence and ugliness and chaos and blended social bag.
[Spoiler warning: the next two questions and answers include some details about the end of the film.]
Because you talked about the ultimate scene. There are 4 characters, together with the protagonist, and they’re reciting a textual content. Is that this one thing that you simply wrote or that got here from scripture or different sources?
I created it myself however with [input]. Within the Turkish credit for the movie, I point out this. I used some quotes from some writers I like. There’s the Turkish writer Murathan Mungan, a well-known poet, and I used a quote from his newest novel. Additionally, there’s a well-known quote from one other Turkish author referred to as Tezer Özlü. I lower issues up and put them collectively to create a sense as a result of I need the viewers to know that that is his thoughts speaking. He creates these things in his head. There’s additionally a quote from British nature author Robert Mcfarlanecfrom his stunning e book Underland. So the ending is a combination of all of this stuff.
After I noticed the movie, I assumed: “What simply occurred?” And Iater discovered myself attempting to recite a few of these traces from the top of the film, which seemed like a mantra…
I’m pleased to listen to that as a result of I used to be attempting to create this sense of “what was that!?” I wished to go someplace that continues to be unexplained and mysterious, possibly even supernatural. I’m signaling some issues to the viewers, akin to that they communicate with their minds, not with their mouths. The thought got here whereas I used to be capturing. I had that picture in my head for a very long time, however I simply did it instinctively on set.
The sound within the movie can be usually eerie and haunting and consists of what seems like ghostly voices and different components. Are you able to inform me a bit concerning the significance of sound for New Daybreak Fades?
I labored on the sound design for a 12 months. I put lots of issues in there, which I took from current recordings. However I additionally employed this nice artist from Italy, Attila Faravelli [for atmosphere design and sound effects editing], and he got here to Istanbul. He recorded the vast majority of the stuff with our sound engineer on set. So I used a few of the older recordings I discovered, however then we created the entire thing through the sound design course of. You may hear that sounds are there, however you can also’t say what it’s and what’s taking place. The entire thing was created artificially, however there are bits in there which are actual, as a result of I wished to create one thing not acquainted to the viewers. I didn’t need them to know what was being whispered and if [characters] communicate with the useless or hear from the useless.
‘New Daybreak Fades’
Courtesy of Locarno Movie Competition
All that positively left me feeling unsettled from the very starting of the movie…
There’s a motive I began the movie at Hagia Sophia. It’s an previous cathedral. It’s a logo of the Jap Roman Empire and Christianity. So there’s a religious which means for Christians in that specific constructing. However then it was a mosque. And in the long run, it was this entire political factor for many years, for hundreds of years. So it additionally turned a logo for Muslim folks. It’s a holy place for everyone. And all people agrees that every one spirits reside there.
So for me, it was handy to begin there with the principle character, and he’s listening to voices coming from the stones as a result of the stones have reminiscence. He begins to listen to that, and that is the second that triggers his assault. All of it begins there.
How did you resolve what method to take to the problem of faith within the film? It looks as if you current numerous faiths…
For me, the thought was by no means to get into one explicit faith. It’s quite common for individuals who have psychological well being struggles to return nearer to God or faith. It doesn’t matter which background you come from – folks attempt to take refuge in God as a result of they really feel alone and so they really feel helpless. My character has a Bohemian, bourgeois background as a result of he’s an actor and does theater, so he’s an informed man, however he finally ends up on the lookout for God and faith. So I’m implying that faith might feed madness. But it surely was additionally vital for me to make connections between turning into an artist and protecting your sanity.
However my preliminary thought was to place him able the place medication don’t work, remedy doesn’t work, and his household is basically irritating to him so he’s having conflicts with the household on a regular basis. So he begins to imagine that he’s nearer to God. I didn’t need to present it in a Muslim method or a Christian method. As an alternative, I wished to combine numerous issues in. It’s a little bit of every part, similar to in Istanbul.
The music from Son of Philip provides to the general temper of the movie. How did you meet him and resolve to have him contribute his cinematic digital sounds to New Daybreak Fades?
I’m a giant fan. I used to be listening to a James Holden DJ set on BBC Radio 6. And I heard this music and thought: “Who the fuck is that this?” And I went to BBC web site and checked the tracklist, and discovered it was from Son of Philip. So I contacted him. He’s an digital music producer and label proprietor from Nottingham and he had by no means accomplished movie music earlier than. However he has this nice ear for movie music. I felt it. I simply gave him some instructions, and it turned out actually, actually stunning. I wished to additionally use digital components within the movie, as a result of the principle character has a narcotic expertise. The medication usually are not efficient for his head and his mind chemical substances. So he hears one thing very human, but in addition very digital and mechanical. There’s a repetition side to madness. You’re going round in circles on a regular basis, not less than in an summary method.
‘New Daybreak Fades’
Courtesy of Locarno Movie Competition
One of many nice issues about Son of Philip is that he’s not even conscious how gifted he’s. He simply did it. I simply gave him some instructions, after which he got here up with one thing stunning. Initially, I really wished to make use of music from some nice digital artists, like Aphex Twin and Autechre and different folks I really like. After I advised Son of Philip, he advised me: “Okay, you talked about some heavy hitters right here. How can I match them?”
However he understood what I used to be attempting to do. Placing an digital rating in a movie could be very troublesome. However on this case, I imagine it labored as a result of his music has such depth and character and in addition one thing very human and heat. There’s this lengthy piece referred to as “Infinity,” which I take advantage of within the movie, that has this repetition and one thing like krautrock, and previous samples. And it turned out nice.
After I contacted Son of Philip, I requested him about his music within the Holden set. I requested: “what’s it?” He stated it’s unreleased, it’s from my first album. Then I instantly wished to make use of it. He’s a genius. I really like him. I’m so pleased that we labored collectively. I most popular to go on an digital music producer as an alternative of a movie composer as a result of there’s a movie composer within him.
Are you able to speak about your subsequent or future initiatives but?
I’ve nearly completed enhancing a movie referred to as Horde, which I shot throughout COVID. It began as some sort of documentary, however I feel it ended up a little bit of each, documentary and fiction. I bought one other couple of months of labor to do with sound design and every part. So I’m engaged on that.
What’s it about?
It’s about these two characters who’ve a funeral of their households, and so they refuse to go. It portrays that specific day. It’s about funerals, it’s about grieving, and it’s fairly totally different from New Daybreak Fades. For instance, the digicam by no means strikes. There are lengthy static photographs.
I additionally wrote this script for what can be my second fiction movie, referred to as Destroyer, and I’m engaged on that too proper now. We’re looking for a technique to finance it.
What is going to Destroyer be like?
It’s a sort of movie noir in up to date Turkey, and it’s a bizarre spy movie. I all the time wished to make a movie noir. It’s a style I’ve actually, actually liked since my childhood. I assumed it may very well be fascinating to do a movie noir in a society like this. We bought nice examples of movie noir in Turkish cinema too. For instance, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s As soon as Upon a Time in Anatolia. This can be a totally different sort of style movie I need to experiment with.
‘New Daybreak Fades’
Courtesy of Locarno Movie Competition
