'One of Those Days When Hemme Dies' THR Presents Q&A With Director Murat Fıratoğlu | THR Video - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

'One of Those Days When Hemme Dies' director, actor and producer Murat Fıratoğlu sat down with THR's Lily Ford for a discussion about the film in a THR Q&A powered by Vision Media.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to THR Presents with me, Lily Ford. I am joined by Marat Firatojlu. He is the

00:10director and star of One of Those Days When Hem Dies. Marat, I have so many questions for you,

00:15but my first one is this expansive opening shot of your film. Was it a real tomato farm? I need

00:21to know. And secondly, what was the symbolism of this gorgeous opening scene?

00:25So it's a real tomato farm. It's not a set. It's a setting that I thought would serve the

00:33character's world. Thus, we decided to shoot that there. And so I'd love to know more about

00:42the character's world then and how Marat, you arrived at your central character. What inspired

00:49this journey of revenge that he goes on?

00:58It's not a personal story, but it's a condition of despite a person's humiliation, that person

01:06still stays in the same place. So I wanted to study that condition. Being a practicing lawyer myself,

01:11I had to be in similar situations. And this theme had always been in my mind. And it's always been a

01:19human condition that I've been willing to express. So I just minimized that into a setting and a

01:26character. There's so many themes touched on in this movie that I really enjoyed, you know, namely

01:34masculinity, revenge, maybe even poverty to some extent. I was wondering what kind of conversation

01:43Marat you were hoping to bring about in your audience surrounding these themes specifically?

01:54In fact, these are not the themes that I thought were in my movie. The story I wanted to tell mainly

02:02is that life goes on. Again, I want to talk about practicing law when I went to prisons to visit the

02:09prisoners. I always asked myself how these people could stand this situation. We all experience good

02:16and bad things in life. And again, in the Heidi character in the movie that plays in the television

02:21also says good and bad things happen to people. And the fact is that these things pass, good or bad.

02:28So this is the human condition that attracts me, not those like specific masculinity themes or etc.

02:33etc. I'm really amazed by the passing of life. And there's a book by John Faust, I might mispronounce

02:41it. It's called Melancholia. And in the book, there's a quote that struck me that says, I don't

02:47understand this happiness and sadness about life. I just want to celebrate it all.

02:55That's really interesting. And I do really want to touch on your career in law, definitely. But then I

03:01suppose just off the back of that question, obviously, there's a sort of becomes not distracted,

03:06but maybe derailed by some more trivial tasks along the day. As you said, things that really

03:12speak to this idea that life carries on and people are going about their normal day. And it's kind of

03:17hard to, it's easy to get wrapped up in that. You know, he helps an elder, a local elder in the village

03:24and runs into a woman he knew at school, for example. What was that also feeding into this sort of,

03:33you know, this idea that that life just carries on and, and, and we're, we're, we're all subject to

03:41that, that passing of time. Yes, it's about the theme of life goes on, but it's also a cultural

03:57situation. Because of the Ayub character, I get to travel the world now. And I realized how

04:02interesting culture plays in real life. And like, let's say someone decides to kill someone in LA,

04:08I don't think anyone would like make a big deal or stop them, stop this thing from happening. But

04:12where I'm from, you know, the whole village would stop this from happening. And the film isn't real,

04:18but the people represented from my culture are very much real. Let's talk about the eating scene,

04:24like, um, the same thing applies. They would never, ever let that guy get out of that table without

04:29having a bite. Um, it's the truth and it's all about the setting and culture. And wherever I set the

04:36story, it finds its own rhythm and language. Let's say if I shot the movie in LA, I would

04:41definitely have, uh, the cocoa robots that are delivering, uh, packages, a Waymo car and a

04:48homeless person. And he would probably crash into a Waymo car, fight with a cocoa robot. So,

04:53but it's like the same human condition, but it changes the rhythm and language depending on the

04:58setting.

05:03Absolutely. I love that. And I loved, I thought it was so gorgeously short. I loved seeing parts

05:11of Turkey that I probably, probably haven't seen before. Um, how do you hope audiences maybe

05:18come a way viewing your native country and its culture?

05:30Again, I'll be like referring to the same things, but I find it so weird with the speed of

05:36globalization and the culture industry. Um, I do the same things around the world. I

05:42take an Uber, drink Starbucks in Turkey and in here. Um, and again, it's not about like

05:48me giving a message about Turkey. It's about me giving a message of how people are the same

05:53everywhere. Uh, you put 10 ants together, they form a colony. You put 10 people together.

05:58It's a cacafety of stories, Shakespeare, this and that. It's just the same everywhere. And

06:02I just want to touch upon that the people are just not that different.

06:06And to touch on your background as a, as a lawyer then, are you still working as a, as a lawyer?

06:15And I'm, I guess I'm really curious to know about that transition from, for lack of a better

06:20word, civilian life to, to filmmaking and, and, and, and how you got there?

06:29I'm still a practicing lawyer and funny things started happening to me ever since this transition.

06:34And the other day there was a film screening and then I went to an e-court wearing my gown,

06:39uh, my law gown. Um, so I do two jobs right now, but it's not like, oh, I work two jobs

06:47and it has a huge return on me. When you are an independent filmmaker, all you're concerned

06:51about is telling a story and, you know, nothing in return in talking about financial terms.

06:57I'm always really curious when I talk to director stars.

07:04Um, how you found or how you find that, that experience of, of making a film, directing a film

07:11and at the same time acting in it. I mean, in this case, you're also the, the movie's lead,

07:15um, in one of those days when Hem dies. So I wonder, uh, how, how that experience was for you

07:23and whether you would do it again?

07:25I did it already because you already shot a second movie.

07:28Oh, wow.

07:31I wrote the movie for the second script about seven, eight years ago and I realized how many

07:36economical obstacles and censorships I was applying to the script. So it's really liberating

07:42now getting to shoot that second movie years later, um, how I slowly and slowly began to lift

07:49those censorships. And it kind of gave me this sense of big liberation. I shot it along with

07:54four other friends. I call these friends because they're kind of ended up being my mates for this

07:59journey, my, my DP, two sound engineers and PAs. We made that second movie, just the five of us.

08:05Otherwise the budgets are impossible. But again, it's something that liberates me and, um, about acting

08:12and directing what I do it again. We have this saying in Turkish, once you kind of swallow the

08:17stage dust, you know, once you get a taste of that stage, you can't really go back. It's not

08:21something that comes like hard to me. I, it's something that comes easy to me. So, and I can

08:26keep acting. So why not? Um, I also, uh, didn't think about acting in this movie, my first movie,

08:33we actually looked for an actor actively, uh, but I ended up having to act in it. Um, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan,

08:40who, you know, is an amazing director that he adores and loves. Um, and he gave me an

08:46encouragement saying you did well as an actor. And so it gave me the encouragement to act in

08:51my second movie. Maybe after my second movie, he'll say you didn't do as good of a job, but

08:55we'll see.

09:00Yeah, as you said, it's an economical decision, just as much as it is a fun, creative one as

09:05well. You've made your first and your second feature film now, but this, you know,

09:10obviously premiered in Venice. It won the special jury prize. How did that feel? How was that

09:17experience for a relatively new filmmaker?

09:24Well, it's amazing. What more can I ask for? And I really hope it's a similar journey for young

09:30filmmakers like me, what I've experienced. I'm really happy with the outcome. Uh, what makes me

09:35the happiest is people watching this from different countries in the world and still

09:40being happy with it because I watched this movie so many times. I grew kind of distant

09:45from it. So I never know how people of different cultures are going to respond to it, especially

09:49because I, the language of the movie is so raw and it's not like super, um, great for like

09:55today's fictional language of cinema. I didn't know how it will be perceived. Of course, there

10:00are people that don't enjoy it as well, but I'm really happy with the overall outcome.

10:07I mean, obviously people really resonated, um, with this film. And I think, you know,

10:13as if things couldn't get any better, it's also been selected as Turkey submission for best

10:18international feature film at the Oscars. Um, and I'm just, I just want to know, maybe you

10:24can talk to me a little bit about getting that call and what kind of confidence it instills in

10:29you as a, as still, as I said, quite a young and, uh, and up and coming filmmaker.

10:38Um, it actually has a very funny story. I was in the middle of shooting my second movie when I

10:42got the call and my second movie is a road movie. It takes place in a lot of different towns in Turkey.

10:48And so after I got the call, uh, when I wanted to shoot something somewhere, I was like,

10:53please go ahead and Google my name. And that really helped a lot with them giving me permission

10:57to shoot there. It, that nomination obviously gives you a sort of recognition, um, and a respect.

11:04And so it became a running joke, like go ahead and Google my name, go ahead and Google my name

11:08while shooting my second movie.

11:11I'm sure that is so exciting. Um, and I'm really excited for the, for your next film now as well.

11:16You seems like you're on a bit of a roll.

11:19Thank you so much.

11:20Thank you so much, Mara. And thank you for watching this episode of THR Presents with me,

11:25Lily Ford.

'One of Those Days When Hemme Dies' THR Presents Q&A With Director Murat Fıratoğlu | THR Video

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