Competing alongside controversial films like Bradley Cooper’s Maestro and Luc Besson‘s DogMan for the Queer Lion award at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, Nehir Tuna‘s buzzy debut feature Yurt (Dormitory) didn’t take home the top prize (that went to Goran Stovleski‘s Housekeeping for Beginners) but was well-received by critics and audiences alike. Shot mostly in monochrome black and white and set during a politically turbulent moment in Turkey’s history, the film follows 14-year-old Ahmet’s (Doğa Karakaş) stuggle to balance a double life that finds him in secular school during the day and sleeping in a strict religious dormitory in the evenings. We caught up with Tuna to talk about the film.
I was doing the math, and I think you were 12 or so during the events of the film. Is some of it autobiographical?
Yes – in 1996 I was 11 and I wanted to make the character at that age as well, but it can be hard to find the right age actor, and if you do, they grow fast. Those circumstances made me change the age of the character and cast someone a little older, but still looks like around 14. That was like the idea to change the age of the character, which ended up as a really good decision.
Back then, I was hiding from my friends and I was going to private school where none of my friends from the dormitory were going. I was able to disguise myself pretty much the way it’s shown in the film. It was a private school and none of the people in the dormitory were going to that school, so it wasn’t that difficult. It was also interesting to see the different kinds of social demographics in parts of the city where you have people like you with similar kind of life standards in the school, but living in the dormitory. It’s completely different – boys who are coming from poorer families who didn’t have many things to enjoy or just the freedom to be a child – lots of boys who matured early, as if like someone had taken the fun out of them.
One of the main conflicts in the film involves a stolen pair of shoes, which also happens in your short film Ayakkabi. Was it always your intention to turn that short into a feature?
Actually, I had an earlier draft that when I was making the short film, I knew I was going to make into a feature. So what I did was reverse…like…I took a part from the feature and made it as a proof of concept. It has a lot of similarities in terms of pacing and writing. It was a good sort of exercise for me to see what I can do.
Like a preview to get more funding? Is it difficult to find funding for films in Turkey that criticize politics and religion this directly?
Yes, it’s impossible to get funding. If they find some sort of political criticism or even the slightest reason that they can use to be unwilling to support the film, they’ll take it. They do everything to ensure that that film doesn’t get made. It has been very hard not getting a support from government – it’s so hard because it’s a key element for European funds, as the case in every other country. You need to get the local support so that you can apply for funds, but we were able to do that because I was very persistent.
Can you give our readers a little context about what was happening in Turkey during the events of the film?
1996/1997 was sort of like a milestone in Turkey’s historic power struggle between between secularists and Islamists, and there was a lot of pressure from the secular sides for those people who were religious – just a lot of tension going on. I say it’s a milestone because those events in 1997 affected the elections in 2002, which brought this current government who has been in power for 20 years, and that changed the whole trajectory of the entire country – that’s why it was important era. At that time, on the TV and in the media, these Islamic years are shown as potential threats to the government and the secular system, so this tension kept growing. People were trying to stay away from these dorms to avoid being labeled as extremists, but for others, like Ahmet’s father, it represents a new righteous way of life. That’s why Ahmet goes there and tries to be a good Muslim, just to please his father.
Would you say that your film empathizes with Ahmet’s father and Yakup, the strict director of the dormitory? It didn’t feel like you were fully villainizing them.
I was trying to also understand them and show how they’re all part of the system. When I was writing this background story for Yakup, I felt that he is a very reasonable and very worldly man, but he holds back all those feelings. If the chance were given to him, he would explore the world and live a more worldly life, but he was brought up in these institutions and therefore he has to be certain way. He’s just repressing and repressing. I was trying to be as objective as possible and not demonize someone very directly. I was trying to show what these systems can do to people and how oppression can affect their lives.
Early on there’s a scene where the boogeyman is mentioned and then Ahmet looks over his shoulder. Is that a reference to John Carpenter’s Halloween?
I wasn’t necessarily trying to reference that, but that’s interesting! It would have been an cool idea and I wish I thought of it, but no…it’s just a coincidence. There is this point where someone’s getting beaten by the with the belt, and then he’s not feeling anything, but because he’s so rushed with emotions, like he’s in love… and then this guy makes a comment says, “Oh, he’s gonna need a bigger belt.” That was a little Jaws reference – it’s silly, but it’s there. Back to your question…it’s also sort of like a way to express his fear. I was thinking about how to visually express his fear and his suffering. That’s how that idea was born.
Speaking of visuals…I don’t want to give things away, but there’s a big change in film language near the end. Did it feel risky to make such a bold aesthetic choice so far into the film?
A little, but as long as there is a thought process behind it, I think it’s okay to play with your shot progressions and other things, like the lighting and camera language. It’s fun and I think it works for the benefit of the film, because when they run away together, it becomes more dynamic with more energetic moments. They become free and, and I think the change becomes aligned with the energy of the story at that moment. Going from black and white to color, it’s a switch that also expresses the psychological parts of the characters. It’s the first time that Ahmet feels free from the pressure of dormitory and when he feels he can make his own decisions
Both of the young actors were great. How did you cast them?
I worked with the same actor who plays Hakan [Can Bertu Aslan] when I made the short, so I knew that he was going to be the in it from the beginning. For Ahmet, it took me a lot of time to find the right person. When I found him {Doğa Karakaş], I really liked his energy and I thought “Yeah, he can do it.” I was originally looking for someone who looks more like me and I was fixated on that idea. Then I said, “Why am I doing this? I can try him in that role.” and I think it worked out really nicely. We had a lot of time to rehearse because we kept postponing the film. There was a long period where we kept getting together….just being friends, eating meals, watching films, and rehearsing. After that, I started rehearsing with the camera, and it was very helpful period for for the actors to bond and have a really good performance.
What’s your next project?
I want to continue on with Ahmet’s story and his relationship to God – that’s really all I can say. I have other projects that I’m interested in – stories about young people who are raised under oppression and the impact of those traumas in their lives later on. I wrote a story, which I also made a short film about Virgin Islands as my second film who tells a story of a sexually oppressed young man’s hunt for his own manhood in the context of a wild, natural world. I had to drop it because it takes place in US and it’s just not realistic for me to make a film there right now. I definitely want to continue the story of Ahmet’s life when in he’s getting out of the dormitory and 20 years old and living the life he has been dreaming.
Yurt (Dormitory) premiered earlier this week at the Venice Film Festival
