Mavi Boncuk |I'm Not Him | Ben o degilim
Who would want to pose as someone else? When dishwasher Nihat has an affair with colleague Ayse, he discovers he looks uncannily like her husband, a dangerous criminal serving time. Gradually a threatening game of doppelgangers unfolds.
Nihat is a restaurant cleaner and leads the trivial life of a bachelor, in which regular outings with his friends and a prostitute are the sole, sad highlights. Until, that is, he starts an affair with his new colleague Ayse, an attractive young woman whose husband is serving ten years in prison. Nihat (Ercan Kesal, who played the lead in Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) discovers he looks uncannily like her husband, and in her new relationship Ayse grasps the opportunity to do everything she never used to be able to with him.
However, a dramatic event changes the curious idyll in which Nihat gradually adopts the identity and appearance of his criminal double, with due consequence.
The story, loosely based on Hitchcock's Vertigo, is presented in a cool, slightly absurdist way using calm, carefully framed and styled shots, and minimal, yet spot-on dialogue.
Turkey, Greece, France 2013
DirectorTayfun Pirselimoglu
ProducerNikos Moustakas | Bad Crowd
SalesRAMONDAParis
Print sourceBad Crowd
ScenarioTayfun Pirselimoglu
CastErcan Kesal
Maryam Zaree
Riza Akin
Mehmet Avci
Nihat Alptekin
PhotographyAndreas Sinanos
EditorAli Aga
Production designNatali Yeres
Sound designFrédéric Théry
MusicGiorgos Koumendakis
Length127'
Film formatDCP
Websitewww.benodegilim.com
Tayfun PIRSELIMOGLU was born in Trabzon, Turkey. He graduated from the Middle East Technical University and studied painting at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna . His work has been exhibited in various major cities. He also writes books and scripts, as well as teaching scriptwriting, cinema and painting.
Dayim (2000, short), In Nowhere Land (2002), Riza (2007), Haze (2010), Hair (2010), I’m Not Him (2013)