Thursday, April 12

Emre Yeksan: “The story emerged from my different states of mind.”

The Gulf from the “National Competition” was screened at Atlas Sineması with the participation of the director Emre Yeksan who explained how the film came about: “Ever since I was a child, whenever I wrote, I always started with real stories but then had the urge to break it off and take it elsewhere. When I would read it, I always thought ‘I wonder if this is coming from my desire to change the reality that I was in?’ This is actually an expression of our desire to change the World that we live in. The film is autobiographical in terms of the character’s feelings; and the story emerged from my different states of mind. I was at a point where I had to make some decisions about my life but was unable to, and then I came across with the smell of the Gulf of Izmir. My state of mind at the time and that feeling of not being able to place yourself anywhere were the determining factors in character development. But then the story stepped outside of the realistic universe, so we cannot call it autobiographical anymore. After I wrote this story, I sent it to Ahmet Büke and we began to work on it together. When we were creating the framework for the story and the character’s feelings, we tried to diffuse what we felt into the character’s world.”

Photo: Benek Özmez