Monday, April 9

Ümit Ünal: “Shame is the first Bergman film I’ve seen.”

The screening of Shame, picked by director Ümit Ünal for the section “Bergman: 100 Years”, took place at Beyoğlu Sineması. Ünal attended the screening and explained why he picked this film: “When Kerem Ayan phoned me a few months ago to tell me about this idea, and said ‘You have to pick a film,’ I didn’t hesitate one moment and said Shame. First of all, it’s the first Bergman film I’ve seen. When I was studying at the university, it was shown on TV, on the Turkish state TV. I was impressed. Bergman tells a story of war in this film. Generally in war films there are heroes. But in this film, there are no heroes, but ordinary people. The film doesn’t tell us what the war did but what happened to these people and how people become corrupt because of the war. War takes away daily life and culture. The protagonists of the film are two musicians who lost their orchestra. Bergman uses a great metaphor and shows us the members of the dissolved orchestra. The good thing about the film is that instead of showing the violence of the war, it shows the violence between these two people. This had left quite an impression on me.