VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
Director Yüksel Aksu collaborates with the blind artist Devrim Tarım in directing a new Turkish film titled ‘Entelköy – Efeköy.’ A graduate of the Istanbul University and Middle East Technical University, Tarım has shot a dream scene for the film. ‘I am interested in everything visual since I am blind. This is why I took cinema education,’ says Tarım
A young, blind director has been recruited to film a dream scene in a new Turkish movie after a childhood of overcoming difficulties convincing his family and friends that he could study and be successful.
Devrim Tarım, who has been blind since birth, has contributed to the new movie called “Entelköy – Efeköy” by Yüksel Aksu filmed in the Aegean town of Didim about a village’s fight against construction of a new power plant. Tarım is the latest example of Turkey’s new generation of directors pushing the limits of art in Turkish cinema.
Tarım, who studied cinema at Istanbul University and the Middle East Technical University, directed a dream scene in the film. “I hesitated when I first received the proposal and wanted to read the script,” Tarım said. “The approach is very important because disabled people in Turkey are open to exploitation. But when I learned that the director of the film was Aksu, I accepted it, because I took script lessons from him at university.”
In the dream scene Tarım directed, a young man, who is the muhtar of the village, falls deeply in love with a German-Turkish woman but could not talk to her. He sees in his dream that he marries her, kisses her and enters the bridal chamber with her. “Just like any other director, I imagined the scene in my mind,” said Tarım. “I wanted a close shot for the kissing scene. I dreamed of a purple quilt for the bridal room. While the groom is kissing the bride, I used mise-en-scene to express that it is a dream scene.”
The young director said he shot the scene with the stage director and gave orders to artists by megaphone, adding that he worked on the details of all the scenes when the filming was done. “This film is the result of teamwork,” said Tarım. “If viewers come to the movie theater without knowing anything, they won’t even know this dream scene was created by a blind director.”
Childhood of adversity
Tarım was born in a village in the Central Anatolian city of Eskişehir and said he was blind from birth. “I could not see and was banned from going outside the borders of my village. I felt like I was surrounded by borders. I realized that other lives and other worlds existed when I listened to the radio. Because I was blind, my family thought I needed care – they were even against my dream of studying at university.”
His family prevented him from becoming an individual because they were proactive of him. “The logic of the state and of a father is the same in Turkey. When I decided to pursue a university education, I did not share this decision with anyone, because they could have said I was blind and could have tried to persuade me to give up.”
Tarım said he was interested in everything visual since he could not see and it was like an action versus reaction. “Some people push their strong sides while some push their weak sides,” he said. “I was listening to football matches on the radio and I imagined the play in my mind.”
Tarım said he received a proposal from another cinema film project during the filming of “Entelköy – Efeköy.” Showing a strong reaction against all of his negative experiences, Tarım said: “I can’t see, but all of my other senses are open. I hear the voice of ugliness. I can smell it.”
The film features the struggle of the Aegean village of Efeköy against the proposed building of a power plant. It is scheduled to be released in the beginning of 2012. The film’s cast also includes German Greens Party Co-Chairman Claudia Roth and former State Minister Yüksel Yalova.
via A film made with help from blind director – Hurriyet Daily News.