Sunday, April 15

Cocote from the section “International Competition” was screened at Cinemaximum City’s Nişantaşı with the participation of director Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias. The film focuses on the traditions, class conflicts, tendency to violence and moral corruption in the Dominican Republic. The director said: “I tried to understand the political or aesthetical significance of being a mulatto. Starting with my previous work, I don’t plan ahead thinking ‘we should use 4:3 aspect ratio here, black and white there’. These aesthetic choices are the reflections of this situation.” The audience asked if there was a similarity between the main character Alberto and himself, to which he responded: “I didn’t suffer from the same religious torments as he does. I grew up in a secular family. The dichotomy between the poor and the rich isn’t discussed much by the public in the country. I come from a working class family. My parents are the first generation to have attended to university in family. I’ve studied in the university as well, and became part of the minority who gets to go abroad with this privilege. Perhaps thanks to this, these ideas will be discussed in this generation.”

Photo: Meltem Satıloğlu