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 the
00:43character's world then and how Marat, you arrived at your central character. What inspired this
00:50journey of revenge that he goes on? It's not a personal story, but it's a condition
01:03of despite a person's humiliation, that person still stays in the same place. So I wanted to
01:08study that condition. Being a practicing lawyer myself, I had to be in similar situations. And
01:14this theme had always been in my mind. And it's, it's always been a human condition that I've been
01:20willing to express. So I just minimized that into a setting and a character.
01:28There's so many themes touched on in this, in this movie that I really enjoyed, you know,
01:33namely masculinity, revenge, maybe even poverty, to some extent, I was wondering what kind of
01:42conversation you were hoping to bring about, um, in your audience, um, surrounding these themes
01:48specifically?
01:55In fact, these are not the themes that I thought were in my movie. Uh, the story I wanted to tell
02:02mainly is that life goes on. Again, I want to talk about practicing law when I went to prisons to
02:09visit the prisoners. I always asked myself how these people could stand this situation.
02:14We all experience good and bad things in life. And again, in the Heidi character in the movie that
02:20plays in the television also says good and bad things happen to people. And the fact is that these
02:26things pass good or bad. Um, so this is the human condition that attracts me, not those like specific
02:32masculinity themes or et cetera. Um, I'm really amazed by the passing of life. And, um, there's a
02:39book by John Faust. I might mispronounce it. It's called Melancholia. And in the book, there's a quote
02:44that struck me that says, I don't understand this happiness and sadness about life. I just want to
02:51celebrate it all.
02:52That's really interesting. And I do really want to touch on your career in law, definitely.
03:01But then I suppose just off the back of that question, obviously there's a sort of becomes
03:05not distracted, but maybe derailed by some more trivial tasks along the day. As you said,
03:12things that really speak to this idea that life carries on and people are going about their
03:16normal day. And it's kind of hard to, uh, it's easy to get wrapped up in that. Um, you
03:22know, he helps an elder, a local elder in the village and runs into a woman he knew at school,
03:27for example. What was that also feeding into this sort of, um, you know, this idea that,
03:36that life just carries on and, and, uh, and we're, we're, we're all subject to that, that
03:41passing of time. Um, yes, it's about the theme of life goes on, but it's also a cultural situation
03:57because of the ape character. I get to travel the world now. And I realized how interesting
04:02culture plays in real life. And like, let's say someone decides to kill someone in LA. I don't
04:09think anyone would like make a big deal or stop them, stop this thing from happening,
04:12but where I'm from, you know, the whole village would stop this from happening. And the film
04:18isn't real, but the people represented from my culture are very much real. Let's talk about
04:23the eating scene. Like, um, the same thing applies. They would never, ever let that guy
04:28get out of that table without having a bite. Um, it's the truth and it's all about the setting
04:33and culture. And wherever I set the story, it finds its own rhythm and language. Let's
04:38say if I shot the movie in LA, I would definitely have, uh, the cocoa robots that are delivering,
04:44uh, packages, a Waymo car and a homeless person. And he would probably crash into a Waymo car,
04:51fight with a cocoa robot. So, but it's like the same human condition, but it changes the rhythm
04:57and language depending on the setting. Absolutely. I loved that. And I loved, I thought it was
05:07so gorgeously short. I loved seeing parts of Turkey that I probably, probably haven't seen
05:13before. Um, how do you hope audiences maybe come away viewing your native country and its
05:22culture? Um, again, I'll be like referring to the same things, but I find it so weird with
05:34the speed of globalization and the culture industry. Um, I do the same things around the
05:41world. I take an Uber, drink Starbucks in Turkey and in here. Um, and again, it's not
05:48about like me giving a message about Turkey. It's about me giving a message of how people
05:52are the same everywhere. Uh, you put 10 ants together, they form a colony. You put 10 people
05:57together. It's a cacophory of stories, Shakespeare, this and that. It's just the same everywhere.
06:02And I just want to touch upon that. The people are just not that different.
06:09And to touch on your background as a, as a lawyer, then are you still working as a, as a lawyer?
06:15Yeah. And I'm, I guess I'm really curious to know about that transition from, for lack
06:20of a better word, civilian life to, to filmmaking 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.
06:34The 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.
06:56I'm always really curious when I talk to director stars, um, how you found or how you find
07:07that, that experience of, of making a film, directing a film and at the same time acting
07:12in it. I mean, in this case, you're also the, the movie's lead, um, in one of those days
07:17when Hem dies. So I wonder, uh, how, how that experience was for you and whether you would
07:24do it again? I did it already. Cause he already shot a second movie. Oh, wow.
07:31I wrote the movie for the second script about seven, eight years ago. And I realized how
07:35many economical obstacles and censorships I was applying to the script. So it's really
07:42liberating now getting to shoot that second movie years later, um, how I slowly and slowly
07:48began to lift those censorships. And it kind of gave me this sense of big liberation. I shot
07:53it along with four other friends. I call these friends because they're kind of ended up being
07:57my mates for this journey, my, my DP, two sound engineers and PAs. We made that second movie,
08:04just the five of us. Otherwise the budgets are impossible. But again, it's something that
08:09liberates me and, um, about acting and directing what I do it again. We have this saying in Turkish,
08:15once you kind of swallow the stage dust, you know, once you get a taste of that stage,
08:20you can't really go back. It's not something that comes like hard to me. I, it's something
08:25that comes easy to me. So, and I can keep acting. So why not? Um, I also, uh, didn't think about
08:30acting in this movie, my first movie, we actually looked for an actor actively, uh, but I ended up
08:37having to act in it. Um, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who, you know, is an amazing director that he adores
08:43and loves. Um, and he gave me an encouragement saying you did well as an actor. And so it gave
08:50me the encouragement to act in my second movie. Maybe after my second movie, he'll say you
08:54didn't do as good of a job, but we'll see.
09:00Yeah. As you said, it's an economical decision, just as much as it is a fun, creative one as well.
09:05You've made your first and your second feature film now, but this obviously premiered in Venice. It won
09:12the special jury prize. How did that feel? How was that experience for a relatively new filmmaker?
09:23Well, 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
09:35me the 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 from it. So
09:45I never know how people of different cultures are going to respond to it, especially because I,
09:50the language of the movie is so raw and it's not like super, um, great for like today's fictional
09:56language of cinema. I didn't know how it would be perceived. Of course, there are people that don't
10:01enjoy it as well, but I'm really happy with the overall outcome.
10:04I'm talking about it. I mean, obviously people really resonated, um, with this film. And I think,
10:13you know, if, as if things couldn't get any better, it's also been selected as Turkey's submission for,
10:18for best international feature film at the Oscars. Um, and I'm just, I just want to know, maybe you can
10:24talk to me a little bit about getting that call and what kind of confidence it instills in you as a,
10:30as 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 got
10:42the call and my second movie is a road movie. It takes place in a lot of different towns in Turkey.
10:47And so after I got the call, uh, when I wanted to shoot something somewhere, I was like, please go
10:53ahead and Google my name. And that really helped a lot with them giving me permission to shoot there.
10:58It, that nomination obviously gives you a sort of recognition, um, and a respect. And so it became
11:05a running joke, like, go ahead and Google my name, go ahead and Google my name while 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. Thank you so much.
11:20Thank you so much, Mara. And thank you for watching this episode of THR presents with me, Lily Ford.
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