Turkish Film Festival // Zoom Talk with Filmmaker Emin Alper on KURAK GÜNLER

KURAK GÜNLER

Burning Days
Turkey 2022. D: Emin Alper
Cast: Selahattin Paşalı, Ekin Koç, Erol Babaoğlu. 127 mins. DCP. Original version with german subtitles.

A young prosecutor is sent to the Turkish countryside to investigate a village suffering from an acute water shortage. Soon, the lawyer finds himself in the middle of a conflict between different parties who are trying to play off individual interests at the expense of the general public. While Emin Alper’s political thriller doesn’t primarily focus on a gay relationship, it cleverly denounces acts of cruelty perpetrated against marginalized communities, including individuals of diverse sexual orientations, ethnic minorities, women, animals, and the environment. It achieves this by using an impoverished town in the Anatolian countryside as an allegory for Turkey.

“Burning Days” was nominated for the Cannes Queer Palm, which prompted the government to demand the return of the funds it had provided to support the film. This incident sparked a debate in Turkey over artistic freedom, censorship, and attacks against the LGBTQ community.

Turkish Film Festival Frankfurt/M. | International (TFF) in June, the DFF cinema will present an evening with Tayfun Bademsoy as well as a tribute to director Emin Alper, who has established himself as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary world cinema since his feature film debut in 2012. Born in Central Anatolia in 1974, Alper initially studied economics and history, during which time he became increasingly interested in theater, literature, and cinema. His influences are diverse, ranging from Chekhov and Tolstoy to R. W. Fassbinder, Emir Kusturica and Michael Haneke, as well as current directors such as Nuri Bilge Ceylan.