East of the West - Competition 2015 / Sarmaşık / Turkey, Germany 2015
A cargo ship suddenly anchors out at sea. It is prohibited from entering the port, so the crew is left to wait things out in a claustrophobic environment with dwindling food supplies. A Turkish psychological thriller on what becomes of the principles of power, authority and hierarchy the moment the traditional social order breaks down.
The crew of a cargo ship have been waiting for their wages for several months. After they are joined by reinforcements and the ship heads off to pick up a consignment, the captain receives news that the company has gone bust and that, once they reach port, the ship will be handed over to creditors. The captain lets the crew go, with the exception of the five men he needs to maintain and run the ship; he then decides to remain out at sea while events take their course. The endless waiting, dwindling food supplies and increasing claustrophobia start to have a harrowing effect on the men’s state of mind, which deteriorates with the mysterious disappearance of one of the crew. Highly convincing acting performances and delicate, inquisitive lensing from Gökhan Tiryaki (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Winter Sleep) turn a handful of characters and a single location into a suggestive memento of incipient chaos. This Turkish thriller explores the enforced coexistence of very different individuals in an enclosed, strictly structured society, where organisation and hierarchy gradually disintegrate.
Kamila Dolotina
104 min / Color, DCP
European premiere
Director Tolga Karaçelik
/ Screenplay Tolga Karaçelik
/ Dir. of Photography Gökhan Tiryaki
/ Music Ahmet Kenan Bilgiç
/ Editor Evren Luş
/ Art Director Ali Şahin
/ Producer Bilge Elif Özköse, Tolga Karaçelik
/ Production Karaçelik Film
/ Coproduction Cine Chromatix KG, Insignia Productions, Jomami Filmproduktion
/ Cast Nadir Sarıbacak, Kadir Çermik, Özgür Emre Yıldırım, Hakan Karsak, Osman Alkaş, Seyithan Özdemir
/ Sales Karaçelik Film
Tolga Karaçelik (b. 1981, Istanbul) initially studied law at Marmara University in Istanbul, and then took a film course in New York. His feature-film debut Toll Booth (Gişe memuru, 2010) tells the tale of a 35-year-old motorway toll booth operator whose routine existence is disrupted by a new boss. Having taken a fairly ordinary plotline, the director then delves into his characters’ uncompromising psychology, which transforms the tragicomic story into a metaphorical vision of the modern world. For his second film Ivy (2015), which he also wrote, he again chose a closed environment, working once more with only a handful of protagonists. In this drama about a six-man crew stranded on a ship that is not allowed to enter port, Karaçelik demonstrates that well-developed psychology and close collaboration with his actors are salient aspects of his directorial style. Ivy had its world premiere at Sundance 2015.
Karaçelik Film
Sıraselviler Cd. No:78 D:2 Cihangir Beyoğlu, 34433, Istanbul
Turkey
Phone: +90 533 459 8747
E-mail: [email protected]
Tolga Karaçelik
Film Director / Producer
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