Inan Temelkuran Turkish filmmaker Inan Temelkuran was born in Izmir in 1976. He studied film making in Spain after he received his degree in law in Ankara. He is the director, writer and producer of the award-winning films Made in Europe and Bornova Bornova, both of which are part of Filmpot catalog.
Filmpot’s İlker Cengiz recently sat down with him in Istanbul and talked about many things over the course of an hour. This is Part 3 of our interview. Here are Part 1 and Part 2.
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Interview with Inan Temelkuran
FP: Looking back, what would you have done differently in Bornova Bornova?
IT: There were 3-4 scripts of Bornova Bornova. I believe film is a visual art, and theoretically I find that movie wrong. But there are cases certain type of people can be portrayed in certain ways. These guys [characters in Bornova Bornova] exist in Turkey; they sit in front of the grocery store and talk all day. So if I’m going to make a movie about such guys, I have to make them talk a lot. In my neighborhood in Ankara there were such guys. I lived there for 4 years, and during 4 years those guys have not moved. I’m sure they are still there. They were bullshitting about things. They didn’t move a finger but did complain all the time. If you ask me “who were you in the movie?”, I was the long hair guy who passes by avoiding conflict with those guys. I didn’t talk to them, I was threatened. They have just enough income to make a living so they don’t work. They think they are smart and everybody else is stupid.
FP: How did you come up with realistic dialogs if you weren’t part of their circle?
IT: I heard them talking. I know about such people from my childhood. Writing a realistic dialogue, using what you heard, what you know, what you want to tell in a dramatic way, it is like a puzzle, it is like editing. In a way editing a film begins before shooting. I know such people. I created characters based on people that I knew. You sometimes take an attitude. And attitude brings words. Then you edit it. That’s how it is.
FP: Opening scene of Bornova Bornova has a kid punching a duck. What was that about?
IT: It is something personal. I didn’t explain it at the time, but later I explained it. After the coup d’etat of 1980 in Turkey, the leading army general became president. During his presidency he went to China, ate a duck and because he liked it, they brought Beijing ducks from China. They placed them in parks in Turkey. One such park was in Bornova [a neighborhood in city of Izmir]. People stole the ducks to eat them. One day my mom told me about a kid from orphanage punching a duck which was hanged upside down. For me, it was the symbol of coup d’etat of 1980. It is a duck, and somebody is punching it, and that somebody is a kid. Why? It is hard to think.
FP: Can we draw parallels between that kid and characters in the film?
IT: Like the kid, all characters are angry. The movie is full of anger. Those guys think they deserve better. Why? What did you do? Nothing! Everybody is saying ‘I deserve better’ in this movie.
[to be continued…]
