April 18, Wednesday

Banu Sıvacı’s first feature film, The Pigeon from the section “National Competition”, was screened at Atlas Sineması with the participation of the director and the film crew. “I grew up in that neighborhood [in Adana] you see in the film; I was one of those kids playing. The men I know who have a passion for pigeons have always been different from other men. I wondered what kind of adolescence they would have had,” said Sıvacı who explained that even though the story is set in today’s world, the characters still live the 1990s. The director also talked about the challenges of working with pigeons, explaining that they had to spend a lot of time getting the birds used to the camera and they even raised Maverdi, the particular pigeon in the film. Mesut Ulutaş, who has been involved in the project from the very beginning, said: “I actually wanted to stay as the editor only. But directors in Turkey are usually left alone in the filmmaking process. That’s why I found myself doing the work of a producer as well. Doing the planning and everything, we’ve come this far. I had to start working as the editor immediately. I spent some time trying to look at the film from the outside.”