A Story Aficionado: Reis Çelik
I think no one can deny the fact that Reis Çelik is the most original and one of the most important directors of the contemporary Turkish cinema who cares more about quality than quantity. Reis Çelik said hello to cinema after 1990, within the historical flow of Turkish cinema that included different types and style, and starting from his first directorial debut, in all his films, he glanced to Turkey’s recent era on his own way and functioned as a guide to never changing problems. It was not a coincidence that Reis Çelik’s cinema consisted of socially based films, which were mostly political.
What he experienced at that time was dramatized with cinematic facts and exhibited on the screen. The fact that he made his first appearance with the politically concerned film “The Light Should Not Go Out” was more than a coincidence, it was more like since his worldview did not overlap with the current type of that period, he was courageously going after this not being an overlapping issue as a story aficionado. However, cinema did not even cross young Reis Çelik’s mind, he left home from the most northern point of Anatolia with his saz in one hand and suitcase on another.
He encountered cinema for the first time with a Yılmaz Güney film, “Kargacı Halil” but he wanted to be a journalist. It was his only dream. In 1970s İstanbul, road conditions caused Ardahan-İstanbul journey to continue for exactly 36 hours. He did not like the big city and decided to go back. Later on, when he is looking for a newspaper-printing job, he registered at a night school and proceeded to continue his education. Immediately after that, he entered the İstanbul Municipality Conservatory and received music education.
In the same period, he brought his music education into a professional level by participating Ruhi Su’s “Friendship Chorus.” Reis Çelik, despite his dream of journalism and chorus work, had been a political person like every young person of his time. For this reason, he was in and out of prisons for short period of times, which he called “state guesthouses.” Right before the September 12 loomed over like a nightmare, he passed by the “state guesthouse” one more time. He would realize that when he started to think about the art of cinema all these experiences have fed and enriched him. After his release, he succeeded to land a job at Günaydın newspaper, and after that Dünya newspaper. He worked as a newspaper distributor in both places. When an art piece he amateurishly wrote liked by well-known journalist Nezih Demirkent, Reis Çelik reached his dream. He was not a newspaper distributor anymore but a journalist who was gathering the news for the most famous newspaper, Günaydın. During his 10 years-long tenure, he became an unflinching journalist running after news stories.
He learned to take good photographs. He undertook important tasks in Turkey’s first private television and later on video-newspaper work. He prepared programs for Turkish expats in Germany called “Video Salam” that gave news from Turkey. In 1991, he took part in the establishment of ATV broadcasting station. He shot commercials and he finally said; cinema. Throughout his life, everything Reis Çelik accumulated formed his cinema. When he wrote the movie “Goodbye Tomorrow” that tells about Deniz Gezmiş and his friends, he did not know if he could shoot it due to the recent political atmosphere in Turkey. However, before he can complete the film, he encountered another difficult situation. Without any experience, telling about the chaos southeastern Turkey is having, given all the hardship a director can experience.
He encountered prohibitions; he did have difficultyfinding actors but did not lose his courage. He shot movies that he could tell the story without branding a bleeding wound, he was going to offer a story to an audience that could help to find a solution. After that, “Goodbye Tomorrow” in which addressed oppression of revolutionary youth and prison spirit; “Stubbornness Stories”-a nod to the region he was born and raised, “Refugee”- the identity crisis of being Turkish and refugee in Europe, “Silent Night”, a mirror for child bride issue. These movies brought many awards to Reis Çelik.
However, most importantly these films offered significant contributions to the world of cinema in Turkey and left deep scars in our collective memory. That’s why his films have not been foreign to us. It is because the people Reis Çelik filmed were not borrowed from some source or left in the void. They were taken from real life, written without having “nothing like” people. Most of the time, we didn’t want to be like his people but we couldn’t help to share their fate and tag along. Because they were equivalent of everything that had been experienced or lived and Reis Çelik’s passion for narrative assumed the mission of notifying us and teaching us, more accurately they overtook the finger pressing mission, even in remote geographies. All applause goes to Reis Çelik…
Alican Sekmeç
1 December 2018 Beyoğlu
From Tradition To Originality: Biket İlhan
Biket İlhan, in the context master-apprentice relationship, is one of the few women directors who grew up in Yeşilçam’s tradition and managed to season gradually and to bring her own cinema to a different level despite using known types, actors, clichés and patterns of Yeşilçam… As much as it is hard to separate her cinema from the type of cinema we know and used to, it is undeniable that she always succeeded to affect her audience with original scripts that tell about people… Biket İlhan, in her first years as director, continued the familiar tradition of Yeşilcam and was able to create very different and original films over time. In fact, she is the gift to Turkish cinema by her husband, the poet Atilla İlhan… In eth 1960s, Atilla İlhan, who was a scriptwriter himself, supported his wife tryst for cinema and wrote scripts for her.
Biket İlhan was an English teacher before being a filmmaker. The first school she worked was in her hometown İzmir. In 1966, her path crossed with poet Atilla İlhan, who was also from İzmir, and the relationship was ended with marriage in 1968. Biket İlhan first moved to Ankara in 1973 and later on to İstanbul in 1981 due to her husband work. It did not take her long to encounter filmmaking since she was a frequenter of culture and art scene. While she did not have filmmaking in her mind, their old friend Selim İleri introduced her to Feyzi Tuna, a filmmaker from Yeşilçam tradition with a distinguished place in Turkish cinema.
In 1982, she stepped in sets for the first time, as Feyzi Tuna’s assistant for the movie “I Buried You to My Heart” with Türkan Şoray and Cihan Ünal in leading roles. After that, her assistant director position continued with “Passion”, “A Woman A Life”, and “Kuyucaklı Yusuf.” Starting her filmmaking career at the age of 37, Biket Ilhan learned a lot about cinema thru master-apprentice relationship in the field. Biket İlhan’s assistant director position continued with TV serials made for TRT such as “Three İstanbul”, “Eagles Fly High”, “Expensive to Live Without Money”, “One Who Knows”, and “Soul Friends.” She did not care when her name was not mentioned as the director in the credits of a TV series she shot. In between, she shots jazz video clips for TRT. However, she paid the most attention to short films made by Atilla İlhan’s poetry. In 1992, for the first time her name is written as director in TRT series “Tele Flash” again written by Atilla İlhan. “Last Hope”, “A Woman’s Face”, and “A Chalice For You” that made within Yeşilçam forms followed it.
Her first original work, which determined Biket İlhan’s place in Turkish cinema, appeared in 1995. “The Man on the Street”, written by Atilla İlhan, attracted great attention for successfully presenting the atmosphere of 1950s and İstanbul. Behind the story it hosted, it succeeded to be a period film, in which an existential and alien character came to the fore, political events felt unobtrusive, reflected suffocating dark atmosphere of her time. In 1997, Biket İlhan turned another Atilla İlhan book, “The Table of Wolves” into a TV series, and in 1998, her second original work “Boatman” met the audience. In this film, she tried to tell the similarities of Turks and Greeks. However, an Aegean story “Boatman” did not attract enough attention despite all its originality. For Biket İlhan İzmir and its surroundings where she spent her childhood and her early youth was like a story store. These stories she read and listen to were priceless for a filmmaker. In 2004, the movie she directed, “The Dark Side of the Moon” is another original story that filmed by İlhan.
That was also an Aegean story. In 2007, “The Blue Eyed Giant” was a new test for Biket İlhan. This time she turned her camera to one of the biggest poets of Turkish poetry, Nazım Hikmet, who was arrested many times due to his political thoughts and spend most of his life either in prison or in exile. Nazım Hikmet’s story prompted Biket İlhan for the fact that no filmmaker has thought to focus on him, despite thousands of articles, hundreds of books written about him, even constant discussions revolving around moving his gravesite.
Given the fact that such an esteemed figure cannot fit into a single film, she concentrated only a certain period of his life. “The Blue Eyed Giant” aroused interest as the first film on Nazım Hikmet. “Unfinished Miracle” that tells the story of the most important reality of Turkey, the village institutes, was her second film about our recent history. Even though “The Blue Eyed Giant” and “Unfinished Miracle” are the stories that can be assessed politically, Biket İlhan never fell into those traps. Acting on “whoever has an issue must do cinema” motto, her problem was not being political, it was to tell stories about people. Her concern and approach were always in that direction. All applause goes to Biket Ilhan…
Alican Sekmeç
1 December 2018 Beyoğlu
One of Us: Süleyman Turan
Being a star in cinema is one thing, being able to act in masterpieces is another. While here or in the world, many stars not able to find an opportunity to act even in a single masterpiece, there are actors who act in masterpieces without needing to be a star and become unforgettable. Süleyman Turan is one of them. Süleyman Turan’s introduction to the cinema corresponds to the first quarter of the 1960s, also known as “Golden Period” when the formations and productions in Turkish cinema accelerated and the besides quality, the films’ qualitative aspects also increased.
In these years, the number of existing popular actors not being able to meet the rising numbers of the films made, caused Turkish cinema to need new faces. Under the direction of Şevket Rado, the most popular cinema periodical of the 1960s Ses Magazine collaborated with the film producers and started to organize a contest called “Cover Star” as a solution to the shortage of new faces in the cinema. In 1963, in the second year of the competition, Ediz Hun became the winner in the category of men and Ajda Pekkan in the category of women. Immediately after that, they both signed contracts with 10 film producers to act in 10 different films. Süleyman Turan and Hülya Koçyiğit step into the Yeşilçam as the runner-ups of that edition of the competition. Süleyman Turan signed a contract with Kemal Film, which was the popular brand name of 1963. He appeared in front of the cameras for the first time in the movie “Dear Misses” with Tamer Yiğit and Türkan Şoray. Immediately after that in “White Pigeon” with Göksel Arsoy and Filiz Akın…
It did not take him long to get rid of his novitiate. With his flamboyant physique, he succeeded to become one of the most wanted actors of the comedies. Films such as “Five Candy Girls”, “Youth Wind”, “Hızır Dede”, “Koçum Benim”, “Kral Arkadaşım”, “Magnificent Drifter”, “My Dear Professor”, “One Groom for Three Bride” followed one after the other. In his first years in Turkish cinema, in the eyes of his audience, Süleyman Turan was always a young man who was sober, able to overlap his gentlemanliness with emotion, able to force the limits of seriousness, other times quiet but not in need of hiding his confidence. For him being a leading or character actor did not make a difference. It did not sadden him to be the second man next to the main male character. Sometimes he was the evil rival of the main male character.
Punches, pistols were flying all over the air. Süleyman Turan has always preferred to be the unforgettable character actor face of the films with thesis rather than being the star actor of popular films. Maybe that’s why the light on his face reflected on his audience without losing its brightness. Films such as “Golden Earrings”, “Sailors are Coming”, “Bodyguard of Fatih”, “The Revenge of the Angels”, “Vatan Kurtaran Aslan”, “Coconut”, “Compassion”, “Sinekli Bakkal, “Attention Searching for Blood”, “Heart Tavern” has made him a character actor. The audience immediately accepted that change and associated him with them. The audience did not look for another reason other than what it is seen on screen. His path crossed with Yılmaz Güney in 1969. The working partnership that started with “An Ugly Man” and continued with films such as “Blood Will Flow Like Flood”, and “Tomorrow is the Last Day” became as unforgettable films of his career.
İn 1971, he won his first acting award with the movie “Tomorrow is the Last Day” at 3rd Adana Golden Boll Film Festival. During the same years, Süleyman Turan became part of fantastic films such as “Masked Five”, “The Return of Masked Five”, “Giants with Iron Fist are Coming”, “Ayşecik and Magical Midgets are in Dreamland”, and “Captain Swing.” He has seen on screen rarely in 1974. In 1975, while the erotic films that spread thru the Turkish cinema like a virus forced many actors of 1960s to work on casinos, to stay at home or to work at other kinds of jobs, Süleyman Turan continued to work without involving with any of that. Besides acting, he started to write screenplays. In 1977, he appeared in front of the television cameras for the first time with the “Creating a Man” by Yücel Çakmaklı.
Over time, especially in the 1980s, he completely turned to the television. In Turkish cinema, some of the actors determine their place on the acting board by copying from the actors of the previous period and improving on their style. More precisely, they have become a follower. Süleyman Turan, with his God-given talent, determined his own place, did not become a follower, and reached the maturity he can pass on the next generations, always was the best friends with the camera, generously gave back his acting to the cinema as a gift, loved being lost between the sound of motor and cut, and always has been one of the most respected film workers. All the applauds goto Süleyman Turan…
Alican Sekmeç
1 December 2018 Beyoğlu