Deniz Telek
The Gentle Sadness of Things, Deniz Telek (2018)
Deniz Telek is a Turkish actor, screenwriter, and director. He studied Philosophy at the University of İstanbul and is currently pursuing his PhD at Marmara University. His short film The Gentle Sadness of Things premiered at Sarajevo, Monterrey, FIFAK - Tunisia, Bosphorus, Izmir, and Istanbul Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize.
Deniz Telek participated in an exclusive interview with Filmatique as part of Talents 2020.
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FILMATIQUE: The Gentle Sadness of Things traces a young man's return to his family's village following the death of his father. He is determined to bring his mother back to live with him in the city, but first must find a home for his father's dog. The film illuminates the contrast between urban and country life, especially the hollowing out of Turkey's rural villages. What inspired you to tell this story?
DENIZ TELEK: Two real stories inspired me to make this film. First of all, I lost my father 6 months before shooting. I was living in İstanbul and my family was in İzmir. My mother and little brother were living with my father and after he died, and I decided to stay in İzmir before moving them to İstanbul where I was living. But the conditions wouldn't allow me to do what I wanted— I saw that in some cases there is no possibility to make people happy. There were two options, but none of them solved the problem. On the other hand, when I lost my father, I encountered traditional rules of society. These rules didn't have any meaning in my life, but people still expected me to follow them. So I firstly wanted to tell the story of what I experienced, making adaptations—I didn't try to tell everything directly.
Secondly, there was a story of my cousin's friend which really affected me when I heard it. They were living in a village on the easternmost side of Turkey, and decided to move to İstanbul. When they loaded their stuff on a truck, they remembered that they hadn't thought about their dog. So they left their dog in village and went on their way, but the dog ran after them. When they took a break from driving after two hours, the dog came back. So I mixed these two story to try and tell a new one.
From writing to shooting, the story improved. For example, when I was searching for the location, I met with Emiş Yıldırım plays the mother in film. She was living alone in this village and had lost her husband two years ago. She also went to İstanbul with her son. But after a while, she decided to come back her village to live alone. I added something from her to the story, too.
FLMTQ: Can you briefly discuss your casting process? How did you find your actors, and how did you work with them on set to bring their characters to life?
DT: I try to imagine someone I know while writing a story. I am very lucky when directing because I am also an actor and work in a theater. That's why I wrote the story thinking to the main character of the movie, Sercan Özinan (Ali) and supporting actor Hasan Ali Yıldırım (Hüseyin). So I didn't do traditional casting for these roles. I also did not want to work with an actress for the role of the mother; I decided to look for a real person for this role. I met with Emiş Yıldırım, who is Hasan Ali Yıldırım's grandmother. When she told me her story, I saw that my story and her story were the same. But Hasan Ali did not think she could act in a movie. I asked her anyawy and she accepted.
I like to work with non-actors; I have worked with non-professional actors in the theater for years. If they are expected to play a role, everything will disappear. But if you find a relationship between their character as people and roles and try to familiarize the role with their character, it works.
The Gentle Sadness of Things, Deniz Telek (2018)