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Zaraa film by Ayten Mutlu SarayDRAMA | 2008 | A,CH,NL | 83 min | Kurdisch, Deutsch | Color | 1:1,85
“Zara” is about how exiled people are forced to live their fate not only as an external state, but equally so as an inner destiny. Therein, several time levels are involved: a past which is lost, a present which is ruined, and a future which is colored with hope.
An open, empty plain stretches out around the village of Zara, dotted with ruins of abandoned places. Here, the film‟s characters are searching for what they‟ve lost: letters, childhoods, homes, friends, parents and children… The village of Zara constitutes the fulcrum of a quest for a safe place – a search which gives rise to the unfolding of the remembered and the dreamt; all within the realm of the imagined present.
In Zara, the Cem ceremony is a celebration of the quest for hope.
Cast: Alişan Önlü (Verrückter),Bedriye Aydemir (Mirkas Mutter), Roza Erdem (Gul), Newroz Baz (Hidir), Sultan Cakmak (Zeynep), Serpil Öcal (Mirka), Barbara Sotelsek (Nursa), Jiyan Aktaş (Mirka 8)
Director: Ayten Mutlu SarayScreenplay: Ayten Mutlu SarayCamera: Felix von MuraltEditing: Daniel Gibel, Frédéric Fichefet, Ilse BucheltMusic: Marcel VaidSound: Eric SpitzerArt Direction: Esther ViersenCostumes: Ellen LensIn cooperation with: Pantheon Film Production: Ayten Mutlu Saray, Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Jos van der Pal, Ilker Abay Funding: Initiative Autorenkino, Stadt Basel, Stadt Genf, Rotterdam Film Fund, Hubert Bals Fund, SF TV, Bundesamt für Kultur Schweiz, Migros Kulturprozent, Suisa Stiftung Director's Statement Exile is an abbreviation, an accumulation of several planes of time. „Past‟, „present‟ and „future‟ intertwine to alter an objective reality into a subjective dream. The long wait for the day of return, the sorrow over what has passed and an unlived present fuse into a dreamt-up Cosmos. Exile is depicted on both poetic and political levels. Poetic are the dreams, memories and daytime reveries. That which is political is silenced, as the images are interpreted deliberately through music and sound.
The slow travelling shots, the cuts in the film‟s timeline, the dreams, memories and waking visions are aesthetic choices aimed at representing a state of loss. It is a loss that is felt throughout the protagonists' quest to find this place that isn‟t a place: a place merely symbolising the ‚fragilité d‟une vie„. All protagonists carry out their quest in the lonely landscape of an empty plain. This landscape is bounded by an invisible power, shown as blurry images of soldiers scattering white powder. Used for the demarcation of regions, the powder is furthermore poisonous and is deployed to destroy nature and people. The real military aggression is not portrayed through image and sound. No voice or image could express the degree of horror. Each real depiction of military aggression only serves to support the horror. It is not the aggression of a single nation which is under charge, but rather aggression itself. For aggression belongs to no nation. Counter-balancing the horror, this film communicates the message that "We are the Garden. The Rose is with us." The world seen as a garden and the rose therein as peace. The search for this 'garden' symbolizes a longing for security.
Zara is a poetic protest in a world, marked by military aggression and exile. “Zara” is about how exiled people are forced to live their fate not only as an external state, but equally so as an inner destiny. Therein, several time levels are involved: a past which is lost, a present which is ruined, and a future which is colored with hope.
An open, empty plain stretches out around the village of Zara, dotted with ruins of abandoned places. Here, the film‟s characters are searching for what they‟ve lost: letters, childhoods, homes, friends, parents and children… The village of Zara constitutes the fulcrum of a quest for a safe place – a search which gives rise to the unfolding of the remembered and the dreamt; all within the realm of the imagined present.
In Zara, the Cem ceremony is a celebration of the quest for hope.
Prizes:
Schweizer Filmpreis for the best music 2009 Festivals: Middle East International Film Festival - Abu Dhabi ( United Arab Emirates) 10.10.2008 - 19.10.2008 Solothurn Filmtage (Switzerland) - 02.2009 Rotterdam International Film Festival, Bright future section (The Netherlands) 21.01.2009 . 01.02.2009 London Kurdish Film Festival (England) 20.11.2009 - 30.11.2009 Calabria Film Festival (Italy) 08.12.2009 - 12.12.2009 Fajr International Film Festival, Teheran (Iran) 28.01.2010 - 11.02.2010 Festival du Cinéma Kurde de Paris (France) 01.12.2010 - 07.12.2010
Ayten Mutlu Saray isn't all that interested in telling stories as such. She works with an essaistic approach to personal perception. In 2002, her last 35mm fiction film 'La Mort en Exil' was selected for the film festivals of Cannes and Locarno and it won her a nomination for the Prix Europa in Berlin. Biography She studied Antropology and Sciences of religion at University of Freiburg in Switzerland and at Freie University in Berlin.
Filmography 2014 Controlling and Punishment, 90min, Cinema du Reel Paris - Price for best film atEuropean Filmdays in Tunisia
2009 Zara, fiction, 35mm, 80 min - Middle East Film Festival, Rotterdam Filmfestival, Nomination for best musicfilm in Switzerland
2002 La Mort en Exil, fiction, 35mm, 27min, several festivals e.g. Cinéfondation in Cannes, Journées de Soleure, Locarno, Kalkutta, Tel Aviv, New York
Distribution in cinema, TV broadcast by ARTE, TSR Price for Contemporary Art, Switzerland Audience Award filmfestival Marburg Price for best short film, Nominated for the European Price in Berlin © KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production, AV PAL, A.M. |