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| İlker Çatak: Sarı Zarflar / Gelbe Briefe / Yellow Letters (TK/FR/DE 2026). Özgü Namal (Derya Tufan) and Tansu Biçer (Aziz Tufan). |
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| İlker Çatak. The director and his team are celebrating the highest prize of the Berlinale. Sarı Zarflar / Gelbe Briefe / Yellow Letters · Competition · Golden Bear for Best Film · 21 Feb, 2026. Photo: Berlinale: Gelbe Briefe. |
TK/FR/DE © 2025 if… Productions / Haut et Court / ZDF. Year of release: 2026. Other production companies: Arte, Liman Film. Produced by Ingo Fliess
Directed by İlker Çatak
Written by İlker Çatak, Ayda Çatak, Enis Köstepen
Bildgestaltung: Judith Kaufmann
Szenenbildnerin: Zazie Knepper
Music by Marvin Miller
Edited by Gesa Jäger
Cast
Özgü Namal as Derya Tufan
Tansu Biçer as Aziz Tufan
Leyla Smyrna Cabas as Ezgi Tufan
İpek Bilgin as Güngör Tufan
Aydın Işık as Salih
Aziz Çapkurt as Baran
Yusuf Akgün as Fikret
Uygar Tamer as Kadriye
Jale Arıkan as Kübra
Seda Türkmen as Sema
Emre Bakar as Ismail Karacabaş
Elit İşcan as Cemre
Sultan Ulutaş Alopé as Rojda
Emine Meyrem as Gülin
İpek Seyalıoğlu as Zeynep
Loc: Berlin as Ankara, Hamburg as Istanbul.
128 min
Language: Turkish
Release dates:
13 February 2026 (Berlinale) Ours d'Or
5 March 2026 (Germany)
1 April 2026 (France) distributor: Haut et Court – sous-titres francais: Emma Delfuano.
Viewed on Saturday 5 April 2026 at 13h20, VOSTFR, MK2 Bastille (Côté Faubourg Saint-Antoine), Salle 1, 5 faubourg Saint-Antoine, Paris 75011, M° Bastille, Lignes 1, 5, 8
The yellow letters of the title are letters of dismissal ("pink slips"?).
Premise from English Wikipedia: "The marriage of an artist couple begins to unravel after a state arbitration at their play's premiere."
Berlinale 2026: "Derya and Aziz, a celebrated artist couple from Ankara, lead a fulfilling life with their 13-year-old daughter Ezgi – until an incident at the premiere of their new play changes everything. Overnight, they find themselves targeted by the state and lose their jobs and their home. They move to Istanbul to temporarily stay with Aziz’s mother. While Aziz ekes out a living with odd jobs and holds on to his convictions, Derya searches for a way to become financially independent. An increasing distance grows between them and their daughter until they are forced to choose between their values and their shared future as a family."
AA: İlker Çatak's Yellow Letters is a contemporary drama about an artist couple in Turkey written by the artist couple İlker and Ayda Çatak.
Derya (Özgü Namal) is a beloved actress and Aziz (Tansu Biçer) a playwright and a professor. They stage acclaimed experimental plays in Ankara during a period of huge demonstrations, closely patrolled by heavily armoured police forces.
Derya fails to accept a photo opportunity with the governor, and Aziz supports his students who join demonstrations. Aziz finds that there could be no greater drama than such demonstrations. Things like this lead to the dismissal of the couple from their theatre, the firing of Aziz from his university and the termination of the lease of their apartment. They get in trouble even with their bank account. Their daughter Ezgi cannot continue her expensive music lessons.
The family moves to Istanbul to restart their life, staying with Aziz's mother. Derya's brother helps Aziz get a job as a taxi driver. Ezgi finds new friends passionate about music and does not long to return to an elite school anymore. Having previously resisted offers of a lucrative role in a television series, Derya now embraces it with great success.
Aziz finds himself in the biggest crisis. Derya deserts his new experimental play without forewarning. In a big family row Derya blames Aziz for his pseudo-feminist attitudes. "It is me who created you!" declares Aziz, and if that is indeed the case, Yellow Letters can be seen to belong to the A Star Is Born legacy about a veteran maestro whose star now rises on her own wings while the maestro falls to the bottom.
Yellow Letters is a piece of stirring social drama. It is not as immediately electrifying as Çatak's masterpiece The Teacher's Lounge nor psychologically as compelling as the marvellous Es gilt tas gesprochene Wort (2019). But it is a rich and rewarding movie, a journey into the turbulence of contemporary Turkey, including setpieces such as a Friday prayer at a mosque and a trial in which the artist couple is accused of promoting terrorism.
The cast is excellent both in leading and supporting roles. In the screening I visited the image was on the dark side because of projection circumstances or because of an artistic decision favouring available light in shadowy interiors. The difference was remarkable to Çatak's previous, well-lensed work.
...
Regie / İlker Çatak
Regie-Assistenz / Shawn Bäumer
Script / Ipek Sertöz (Script Supervisor)
Drehbuch / İlker Çatak, Ayda Meryem Çatak, Enis Köstepen
Kamera / Judith Kaufmann
Kameraführung / Jan Schuberth
Kamera-Assistenz / Gero Neumann
Steadicam / Florian Klos
Farbkorrektur / Christian Kuss
Standfotos / Ella Knorz
Licht / Timm Brückner
Kamera-Bühne / Lukasz Wyszkowski, Ivain Adrian (Assistenz)
Szenenbild / Zazie Knepper, Luca Rossi (Assistenz)
Ausstattung / Jeannie Ulrich
Außenrequisite / Tim Meisner, Steffi Lehmkul
Innenrequisite / Susanne Lingens, Youssif Ibrahim (Assistenz), Isabel Lampe (Assistenz)
Maske / Nicola Faas, Anne Wenzel (Assistenz), Yasmin Iqbal (Assistenz)
Kostüme / Christian Röhrs, Emily Schumann (Assistenz), Johanna Schraut (Assistenz)
Schnitt / Gesa Jäger
Schnitt-Assistenz / Arzu Tuncel Rollenhagen
Ton-Design / Sebastian Tesch, Florian Holzner
Ton / Maarten van de Voort
Ton-Assistenz / Max Kober
Synchron-Ton / Anna Dorothee von Hammerstein
Casting / Ceren Sena Akdeniz
Musik / Marvin Miller
Darsteller
Özgü Namal / Derya
Tansu Biçer / Aziz
Leyla Smyrna Cabas / Ezgi
İpek Bilgin / Güngör Hanim
Aydın Işık / Salih
Aziz Çapkurt / Baran
Yusuf Akgün / Fikret
Uygar Tamer / Kadriye
Jale Arikan / Kübra
Seda Türkmen / Sema
Emre Bakar / Ismail Karacabraş
Elit İşcan / Cemre
Sultan Ulutaş Alopé / Rojda
Emine Meyrem / Gülin
Ipek Seyalioglu / Zeynep
Ela Cosen / Münise
Erdogan Koc / Zafer
Yasin Kalfa / Imam
Vedat Erincin / Zülfikar
Eray Egilmez / Üst
Uğur Taşbilek / Rechtsanwalt
Sezer Uzunoglu / Security
Tuba Görgün / Nachrichtensprecherin
Mustafa Cicek / Theaterschauspieler
Ferhat Keskin / Taxi-Fahrer
Şiir Eloğlu / Rektorin
Irem Gökçen / Havva
Ümran Algün / Assistentin
Hadyeh Khalaj / Schülerin
Produktionsfirma
if... Productions (München)
in Co-Produktion mit
Haut et Court (Paris)
Liman Film (Istanbul)
in Zusammenarbeit mit
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)/Arte (Mainz)
Produzent / Ingo Fliess
Co-Produzent / Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo, Eliott Khayat, Nadir Öperli, Enis Köstepen
Redaktion
Alexandra Staib (ZDF)
Martin Gerhard (ZDF / Arte)
Barbara Häbe (Arte)
Executive Producer / Ingo Fliess
Herstellungsleitung / Ingrid Holzapfel
Associate Producer / Seren Sahin
Aufnahmeleitung / Roland Kanamüller, John Kustendy (Motiv), Robert Seemann (Motiv), Romy Guttmann (Motiv), Leo Manow (Set)
Erstverleih: Alamode Filmverleih (München)
Filmförderung
Beauftragte/r der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien - Filmförderung (Berlin)
Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) (Berlin)
Deutscher Filmförderfonds (DFFF) (Berlin)
MOIN Filmförderung (Hamburg)
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH (MBB) (Potsdam)
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH (FFFB) (München)
Deutsch-Türkischer Co-Production Development Fonds (DE)
Dreharbeiten 24.5.2024 – 10.7.2024: Hamburg und Umgebung, Berlin
Länge: 128 min
Format: DCP
Bild/Ton: Farbe, Ton
Prüfung/Zensur:
FSK-Prüfung (DE): 12.1.2026, 276434, ab 12 Jahre / feiertagsfrei
Uraufführung (DE): 13.2.2026, Berlin, IFF – Wettbewerb, Berlinale Palast;
Kinostart (DE): 5.3.2026
