Friday, April 13

Gone with the Hazelnuts from “National Documentary Competition” was screened at Pera Museum Auditorium with the participation of the director Ercan Kesal and the film crew. The film shows how agricultural labor changed in the village of Çiçekpınar of Düzce from 1930s until the 2000s, and how the village’s social structure has transformed along. The director said that the film was inspired by an academic thesis and added: “We’ve been made slaves to the present. We don’t have the time to look back and share certain things again. I try to avoid such phrases as ‘how technology has ruined us’ but we have no idea about each other. We know what’s going on in the world but not in each other’s lives. This film is a criticism of capitalism; it’s the story of people who have to migrate to other places in order to be happy. I didn’t try to tell some sort of nostalgic yearning for the past, but for the things that we could have done in the past and yet didn’t do. You don’t miss the past, you miss the memories.” Kesal also shared his thoughts on filmmaking: “Why would someone make a film? They make a film because of their sense of self-respect and personal journey in this life, not to gain fame, acclaim or money.”

Photo: Benek Özmez