Hayat | 2023 195 mins.
Director: Zeki Demirkubuz; Writer: Zeki Demirkubuz
Cast: Miray Daner, Burak Dakak, Umut Kurt
Mehmet’s daughter, Hicran, ran away from home a while ago. Mehmet goes to explain this situation to his daughter’s fiancee Rıza and his family. Rıza is not impressed at first, as he thinks his fiancee doesn’t want him anyway; but after a while he starts to feel humiliated. Finally, he can’t stand it and goes after her to İstanbul.
(filmed in Sinop and Istanbul)
Zeki Demirkubuz (born 1 October 1964) is a contemporary
Turkish film director, screenwriter, producer and film editor.
Demirkubuz dropped out of high school and started working in
a textile workshop. He then worked as a street vendor for some time. After the
1980 coup d'état, he was imprisoned without trial for three years at the age of
17 for alleged communist activities and was tortured. At the time, he
was studying Communications Engineering at Istanbul University. Following his
graduation, he became involved with movie making. After working as an assistant
director, he established his own production company called "Mavi
Film". Uncompromising and fiercely independent, Demirkubuz controls almost
every aspect of his films, making few concessions to prevailing trends.
He started in the movie business as the assistant of
director Zeki Ökten in 1986 and made his first film, "C Blok" in
1994. He was able to manage his projects with very low budgets due to the
experience he gained while working as an assistant.
Some of his films are "Masumiyet" (1997), which
was shown at Venice Film Festival and "Üçüncü Sayfa" (1999), also
shown at many international film festivals like Locarno and Rotterdam. The
films "Yazgı" (2001) and "İtiraf" (2001) included in his
"Mental Minefields: The Dark Tales" trilogy [written by Zeki
Demirkubuz] were shown at Cannes Film Festival's "Uncompetitive
section". He made "Bekleme Odası" in 2003.
Demirkubuz refers to Dostoevsky in his cinematographic
mentality. His scenarios grow on the ethical dilemmas of the human condition.
He usually uses basic concepts such as love, passion, self-sacrifice, and the
absurdity of life and death.
Zeki Demirkubuz's "Kader" won "The Best
Film" prize at 2006 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.
Filmography
1994 C Blok ("Block C")
1997 Masumiyet ("Innocence")
1999 Üçüncü Sayfa ("The Third Page")
2001 Yazgı ("Fate")
2001 İtiraf ("The Confession")
2003 Bekleme Odası ("The Waiting Room")
2006 Kader ("Destiny")
2009 Kıskanmak ("Envy")
2012 Yeraltı ("Underground")
2015 Bulantı ("Nausea")
2016 Kor ("Ember")