Sodankylä morning discussion 2024: Asli Özge

Asli Özge, Kaisu Isto, Timo Malmi. The morning discussion at the School, 16 June 2024. Photo: Susanna Pesonen.

Asli Özge.

Hosted by Timo Malmi and Kaisu Isto. 60 min

The School, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 16 June 2024.

Kaisu Isto (MSFF Catalogue 2024): " Istanbul-born screenwriter-director Aslı Özge knew early on as a teenager that she wanted to be a filmmaker. After first studying communications, she eventually graduated in 1999 from the Film and Television Academy of the University of Marmara in Istanbul. In 2000, she moved to Berlin, where she studied philosophy and co-founded her own production company with fellow filmmaker Emre Erkmen. In her films, Özge has dealt with societal mechanisms in both her country of origin as well as her new home country. Her first feature-length directorial work was Ein bisschen April (2003), a small-budget made-for-TV film commissioned by the German broadcaster ZDF and shot in only ten days. From her very first film, Özge employed a method intended to elicit the most authentic possible performance out of her cast: the actors were not given a chance to familiarize themselves with the whole script, knowing only their own character and lines, but not those of their co-stars. "

" The award-winning Men on the Bridge (2009), which has been screened at dozens of film festivals, is a shrewd portrayal of Turkish society told through the stories of three men whose paths cross on the Bosphorus Bridge. The performances of the amateur actors playing the flower salesman, the shared taxi driver, and the traffic officer serve to reinforce the documentary feel of the film. Lifelong (2013) is a skilled exploration of a married couple whose passionless life is hidden behind a middle-class façade. "

" Having lived in Germany for 15 years, Özge felt she was ready to take on the topic of German society, and she gained the favor of both audiences and critics with her dark psychological thriller All of a Sudden (2016). The story of an upstanding small-town family’s social downfall shows how flexible the concepts of honesty and loyalty can be. In 2019, Özge directed a German-Belgian co-production in the form of a six-part crime series, and in 2023 she completed Black Box, whose Belgian co-producers were Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (who attended our festival in 2005). The film is an ensemble drama about the residents of a German city block, who find themselves in exceptional circumstances as the police shut down the block, blocking both entry and exit. Nobody knows what’s going on as hearsay spreads, and fear, suspicion, and hostility begin to take hold. Together, the residents of the block form a kind of miniature society that acts as a window into the mechanisms of power. Özge had already finished writing the script when the pandemic began, and says she had no idea that the dystopia she was writing about would soon become a reality through COVID-19. "

" Özge’s latest film, Faruk, premiered in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlinale, where it also won the prize of the FIPRESCI jury. Combining elements of documentary and fiction, the film depicts the life of Özge’s elderly father in Istanbul and the inexorable transformation of the city due to gentrification. In Özge’s films, the location — be it a bridge, a city block, or a whole city — often emerges as a character in and of itself. This also holds true for Faruk, in which the city of Istanbul and the protagonist’s life are tightly interconnected. "

" In a short period of time, Özge has emerged as a new and influential voice in German cinema, but she also continues to depict her country of origin with a keen eye. Often, the characters in her films, too, reside in a liminal space, in the intersection between the old and the new. " Kaisu Isto (MSFF Catalogue 2024)

MSFF Press Release, 16 June 2024: " Aamukeskustelun avasi turkkilainen elokuvaohjaaja Aslı Özge, joka on tehnyt kansainvälistä uraa dokumenttia ja fiktiota sekoittavilla teoksillaan. Istanbulissa syntynyt Özge muistaa ensimmäisen elokuvansa olleen eroottinen arabiankielinen draama, jonka hän näki 6-vuotiaana äitinsä ja tätinsä kanssa. Hän muistaa vaivaantuneen ilmapiirin ja tunteen jostain kielletystä. 

Äitinsä sairastuttua syöpään Özge kävi aina matkalla sairaalaan katsomassa elokuvan. Elokuvista muodostui voimakas lohdun lähde, joka tuki vaikeassa elämäntilanteessa. Elokuvissa käydessään Özgen mielessä alkoi kypsyä ajatus elokuvaohjaajan urasta, sillä hän koki sen hyvänä kanavana käsitellä äitinsä sairautta. 

Kulttuuria kuluttaneessa perheessä ei ollut luovan alan ihmisiä, joten Özgen uravalinta oli pienoinen yllätys. Hän opiskeli aluksi viestintää kunnes pääsi sisään elokuvakouluun. 

‘’Ohjaajan pitää aina olla todistelemassa jotain. Se voi olla aluksi vaikeaa’’, Özge toteaa. 

Kansainvälistä elämää viettävä Özge uneksi jo nuorena ulkomaille muuttamisesta. ‘’Turkki voi olla poliittisesti ja taloudellisesti vaikea maa, joten teini-ikäisenä kaikki ystäväni suuntasivat katseensa ulkomaille.’’ 

Özgen luottokuvaaja ja kumppani Emre Erkmen houkutteli hänet aikoinaan mukaansa Saksaan, sillä Erkmen oli siirtymässä Saksalaiseen elokuvakoulu DFFB:n. Berliiniin muutettuaan Özge alkoi suunnitella ensimmäistä elokuvaansa. ‘’Minulla ei ollut juuri yhtään rahaa, joten ensimmäinen projektini sai alkunsa lähinnä verkostoitumalla ja päättäväisyydellä. Menin elokuvakoulun osaston johtajan puheille ja sanoin, että jos en saa heiltä kameroita lainaksi, varastan ne. Vasta silloin hän suostui’’, Özge kertoi. 

Ensimmäinen elokuva, Pieces of April (2003), kertoi jatkuvasti asunnosta toiseen muuttavista nuorista, jotka etsivät paikkaansa vieraassa maassa. Elokuva valmistui nopealla aikataululla ja sisälsi runsaasti improvisointia. Yllättäen elokuva poimittiin saksalaiseen televisioon, ja ovet saksalaiseen elokuvateollisuuteen alkoivat avautua. 

‘’Fyysisesti elin Saksassa, mutta ajatukseni olivat yhä Istanbulissa. Halusin käsitellä turkkilaisia aiheita Saksasta käsin, sillä se on yhä kotini’’, Özge kertoo. Hän sai kuvaajansa Erkmenin kanssa idean elokuvaan Men on the Bridge (2009), joka sijoittuu Bosporinsillalle ja kuvaa taloudellisesti prekaarien ja monesti paperittomien nuorten elämää. Erkmeninillä oli elintärkeä rooli projektin onnistumisessa. 

‘’Olemme Emren kanssa tiimi. Hän on ensimmäinen ihminen, jonka kanssa keskustelen käsikirjoituksesta ja kuvauksesta. Hän ajattelee kameran kautta. Olemme päättäväisiä. Tiedämme, että vaikka kukaan ei antaisi meille rahaa, tekisimme elokuvan kuitenkin.’’ 

Özge pitää hybriditeemoista. Saksalaisen miehen ja turkkilaisen kuolemaan päättynyttä suhdetta kuvaava All of a Sudden (2016) törmäyttää yhteen saksalaisen ja turkkilaisen kulttuurin oikeuskäsitykset. Monet hänen teoksistaan syntyvät kahden genren rajalla, määrittelemättömällä vyöhykkeellä dokumentin ja fiktion välissä. Men on the Bridge on tässä mielessä enteellinen, sillä se tapahtuu sillalla, vertauskuvallisesti Aasian ja Euroopan välissä. 

Özge tunnetaan myös ohjausmetodeistaan ja amatöörinäyttelijöiden suosimisesta. ‘’En halua antaa käsikirjoitusta näyttelijöille liian aikaisin, tai annan jokaiselle eri version tekstistä. Silloin säilytetään spontaanius ja yllätyksellisyys näyttelijöiden välisissä kohtaamisissa’’, Özge kertoi. 

Black Box (2023) sijoittuu asuintalon sisäpihalle, joka yhdistää ihmisiä eri kulttuureista ja sosioekonomisista suhteista. Elokuvan tekeminen herätti Özgen ajattelemaan politiikkaa uudesta näkökulmasta.

‘’Politiikka on läsnä jokapäiväisessä elämässämme. Se vaikuttaa kaikkiin ihmissuhteisiin, emmekä kuitenkaan puhu siitä. Black Box on yhteiskunta pienoiskoossa ja sen konfliktit ovat läsnä kaikkialla yhteiskunnassa.’’

Uusin elokuva Faruk (2024) käsittelee Istanbulin gentrifikaatiota seuraamalla läheltä ohjaajan 96-vuotiaan isän elämää. Isän kotitalon purkaminen heijastaa suuria muutoksia turkkilaisessa yhteiskunnassa. Isä elää kahden maailman välissä, vanhan kotitalon muistojen ja edessä muuttuvan tulevaisuuden rajamailla. 

‘’Vanhemmat ihmiset eivät ajattele kuolemaa kuten me. Isäni saattoi kuulla aamulla naapurin kuolemasta ja illalla lauleskella television ääressä. Näkökulma ikääntymiseen ja kuolemaan muuttuu iän myötä. Isäni tutkiminen opetti minuakin valmistautumaan menetyksiin ja ikääntymiseen’’, Özge kertoi. 

Esikuvistaan Özge nostaa esiin Stanley Kubrickin. ‘’Kubrickin jokainen elokuva on täydellinen mutta ne ovat täysin erilaisia. Opin häneltä, että minun ei tarvitse juuttua yhteen tyyliin, vaan voin olla monipuolinen.’’ Autiolle saarelle hän ottaisi mukaan Michelangelo Antonionin Punaisen erämaan (1964). " MSFF Press Release, 16 June 2024

MSFF Press Release, 16 June 2024: " Sunday’s morning discussion was opened by Turkish film director Aslı Özge, who has made a name for herself internationally with works that blend documentary and fiction. Born in Istanbul, Özge remembers her first film being an erotic Arabic-language drama she saw at the age of six with her mother and aunt. She recalls the awkward atmosphere and the feeling of something forbidden.

When her mother fell ill with cancer, Özge would always watch a film on her way to the hospital. Movies became a powerful source of comfort that supported her during a difficult time. During these cinema visits, Özge began to nurture the idea of a career as a film director, seeing it as a way to process her mother’s illness.

In a family that consumed culture but had no creative professionals, Özge’s career choice was a slight surprise. She initially studied communications until she was accepted into film school.

“A director always has to prove something. It can be challenging at first,” Özge states.

Living an international life, Özge dreamed of moving abroad from a young age. “Turkey can be a politically and economically difficult country, so as teenagers, all my friends looked abroad,” she says.

Her trusted cinematographer and partner Emre Erkmen enticed her to join him in Germany when he was moving to study at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). After moving to Berlin, Özge began planning her first film. “I didn’t have much money, so my first project started mainly through networking and determination. I went to the head of the film school department and said that if they didn’t lend me the cameras, I would steal them. Only then did he agree,” Özge recounts.

Her first film, Ein bisschen April (2003), told the story of young people constantly moving from one apartment to another, searching for their place in a foreign country. The film was completed on a tight schedule and included a lot of improvisation. Unexpectedly, the film was picked up by German television, and doors to the German film industry began to open.

“Physically, I lived in Germany, but my thoughts were still in Istanbul. I wanted to address Turkish themes from Germany because it is still my home,” Özge says. She and her cinematographer Erkmen got the idea for the film Men on the Bridge (2009), set on the Bosphorus Bridge and depicting the economically precarious and often undocumented lives of young people. Erkmen played a crucial role in the project’s success.

“We are a team with Emre. He is the first person I discuss the script and filming with. He thinks through the camera. We are determined. We know that even if no one gives us money, we will still make the film.”

Özge is known for her directing methods and preference for amateur actors. “I don’t want to give the script to the actors too early, or I give each of them a different version of the text. This preserves the spontaneity and surprise in their interactions,” Özge explains.

Black Box (2023) is set in a residential courtyard that connects people from different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. Making the film made Özge think about politics from a new perspective.

“Politics is present in our everyday lives. It affects all human relationships, yet we don’t talk about it. Black Box is a microcosm of society, and its conflicts are present throughout society.”

Her latest film, Faruk (2024), deals with the gentrification of Istanbul by closely following the life of her 96-year-old father. The demolition of her father’s home reflects the significant changes in Turkish society. Her father lives between two worlds, the memories of the old house, and the changing future ahead.

“Older people don’t think about death like we do. My father could hear about a neighbour’s death in the morning and sing by the television in the evening. The perspective on aging and death changes with age. Studying my father taught me to prepare for loss and aging,” Özge says.

Among her inspirations, Özge mentions Stanley Kubrick. “Every Kubrick film is perfect, but they are all completely different. I learned from him that I don’t have to stick to one style; I can be versatile.” On a desert island, she would take Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert (1964). " MSFF Press Release, 16 June 2024

AA: Added notes:

Q: WHAT WAS THE FIRST FILM YOU SAW?

With mom and aunt I saw a glimpse of sex in an erotic film. When I was 16, my mother fell ill with cancer, and every time I visited her I went to the cinema and thought that I have to become a director. I was born in Istanbul and studied there. I was born into middle class, not an artistic family. I don't know where art came from. I participated in high school plays.

Q: READING BOOKS

A: Nietzsche. Bigger than me. The Turkish poet [Östif Azraf?].

Q: ROOTS IN TURKEY.

A: Berlin at 24. Everybody dreamed of going abroad. Private school. Everything in English. Learned English very early. 

German was new. Transfer to DFFB - Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin. The first 6 months I tried to learn German. Entered into philosophy for two years in German. I still didn't understand anything.

Reinhard Hauff, very important role, strong. Everybody was afraid of him. 

Camera: there is a line for cameras. Reinhard: "Don't steal, you'll have them." We shot it, Ein bisschen April, for 3sat. I managed to pay the rent. 

Leaving something behind and starting anew always interests me.

Q: GERMAN FILM INDUSTRY, ALREADY INTEGRATED NOW.

A: I did not know anything about contracts. In a month we saw Ein bisschen April on tv.

I spoke very little German, got the idea for Köprüdekiler / Men on the Bridge.

My first films were all set in Istanbul.

Film funds: - television - distributor.

In the first pitch, the Finnish TV [Yle, Erkki Astala] gave the first pitching in my life.

Q: COMPANY WITH A CINEMATOGRAPHER PARTNER EMRE ERKMEN, YOUR MUTUAL BABIES.

A: Emre is my partner, cinematographer and first reader. He likes to think with his camera. He shot all my films. Even if nobody gave us money, we would make the films. It's more difficult in the beginning. Emre always tries to give me space.

Q: ACTORS.

A: I look for new teams, hybrid things. 

I don't give the script. They know their character.

I have different scripts. I don't want them to get used to the dialogue. I like spontaneity.

I am not in love with what I have written.

Sentences like in daily life.

Q: HANNS ZISCHLER.

A: Agents read scripts. I won't give it. Simone Baer. Hanns Zischler ok to meet director at lunch.

Altena. In the movie with no future. Zischler: "My wife is from Altena."

Workshops: physical activities, like a family, stayed there for a few months.

Q: AUF EINMAL / ALL OF A SUDDEN.

A: My first in Germany. Almost claustrophobic. Small town mentality.

In 2016 - sixteen years films in Turkey, then back in Germany.

A famous moderator died in the house. Guy was in charge of beauty contests. She had asthma. He did not call the ambulance. She was also a foreigner.

Q: BETWEEN MEN ON THE BRIDGE AND FARUK.

A:  Where do the rose sellers come from?

The bridge connects Asia to Europe.

The wait on the bridge is very metaphoric.

A massive image of the Bosphorus Bridge.

Faruk is about gentrification.

The poor people's situation.

Q: ALSO BETWEEN DOCUMENTARY AND FICTION.

CLIP: Faruk (TK 2024). Tahir passed away in the metro. Dead all day.

A: My father did not take it hard to hear about his neighbour's death. Getting old is losing things gradually. But life goes on. 

My father is 96. I am a late child. We have a close connection.

Q: BLACK BOX.

A: Faruk was 7-8 years in the making. Black Box happened in the interim, it has humour elements. I don't want a dark film about old age. During the pandemic, we had a courtyard where we could all live together. Doors were closed.

The first reaction: it's too early now. The surface: gentrification. Deeper: losing democracy. Methods of manipulation. We adapt into our daily lives.

Q: SUSPICION WHEN THE COURTYARD IS CLOSED.

A: A climate of fear, methods he used to get the flats he wants. In Berlin I live in a house with a courtyard.

Q: CINEMATIC INSPIRATIONS?

A: Of course, but I cannot give just a few names like Bresson, Antonioni, Bergman, Tarkovsky.

Kubrick: every film is different. I can try different things. Go with the subject. No repeating yourself.

Q: WHAT FILM WOULD YOU TAKE TO THE DESERT ISLAND?

A: It's the most difficult question.

Il deserto rosso.