Future Last Forever
Future Last Forever
Director Özcan Alper continues his walk into cinema with the film “Future Lasts Forever” following his first feature-length film “Sonbahar” (Autumn) where three languages Turkish, Hemsin language and Georgian were used together in 2008. In his new film, director Alper takes the audience to the “war process” in Turkey while at the same time beginning a journey in their inner worlds.
Alper’s first film Sonbahar, which was about the Back to Life Operation, a recent savagery in prisons and presents the post-prison process of a revolutionist prisoner who survived the operation, was granted for the best film at 15th Golden Boll Film Festival. In his new documentary-like film Future Lasts Forever, which has been released on 11 November, Alper this time takes the audience to the end of 90’s, to the process of civil war, unidentified murders and slaughters in Turkey over the story of Sumru who happens to go to Kurdish cities for a few months for the thesis she is studying at a university in Istanbul.
Alper says he decided to shoot this film many years ago as the Kurdish issue was always on his agenda. He was after telling the dirty war on the basis of women and children. Then, he added, he wrote the script in the region which he visited very often at different times. Alper notes that he always felt himself obliged to shoot this film because he is part of the generation of war. He adds the story of the script’s genesis is this: “As a young director, I wanted to film the war through women and children. I started writing the script in 2005 and there have been some changes in the film since then. I began the script with the story of a reporter of Dicle News Agency. I started writing a story about the reporter’s testimonies, unidentified murders and the families of their victims, families looking for their lost relatives and being young in the middle of the war. However, I made some changes on the script in the course of time and changed it into the present form.”
In the film Gelecek Uzun Sürer, Alper drifts away from neither the reality of war nor the cultural reality by using the language of daily life. The film begins with author Cesare Pavese's words "If one day the war ends, then we'll have to ask ourselves, what will we do with the dead, what did they die for?" and extends greetings to the brotherhood of peoples with the Hemsin language, Kurdish, Turkish and Armenian languages used in the stream. Alper underlines that the vehement dimension of the war comes into our lives through media while the war’s influence on women, young people and children are however being ignored.
Alper points out that it would be in contradiction with life if only the Turkish language was to be used in the film. Reminding of his mother tongue Hemsin language which is among the languages facing extinction, Alper tells that he wants different languages to appear in cinema, linking this opinion to his process at Mesopotamia Cultural Center (MKM) where he learnt about both cinema and the Kurdish struggle.
Contrary to his first film which arouses the feeling of despondency, Alper in this film makes difference with his “special” expression of hope, blessedness of life in the face of death, dignified peace in the face of war and instructiveness in the solution of the Kurdish problem. There was a positive environment in Turkey regarding a solution to the Kurdish problem in the period when he started shooting the film, while the current political environment is quite tense, points out the director and remarks that the Kurdish issue can’t be solved with the methods seen in the film because of the fact that it isn’t a matter of security.
“Can the Kurdish problem not be solved through politics?” asks Alper and continues as follows; “It doesn’t matter if the dying young people are guerillas or soldiers. Why did so many people die although this was a solvable problem? As well as trying to direct the audience to question this point, I also wanted in this film to remind warmongers and those affected by them that another way is also possible. I wish the film would make people tell their conscience that ‘things aren’t like what they see from where they stand’
Alper emphasizes that Kurds are the side suffering from savagery and explains that he used his camera and reversed it to enable some people to develop empathy. Reminding that the state has always tried the same thing, Alper says the followings; “The government closes the door of a room in the face of each problem that emerges. They have also closed doors to the peoples of this territory. The system should be grounded on confronting and settling accounts with the past and problems, not covering them up. From this point of view, I wanted to base the film on a sort of settlement and not forgetting. On this basis, I think establishing a truth commission and many other things can be achieved through the ability to see the pains of others. I would like the film to be a means for dominant powers to draw the conclusion that ‘Yes, we did wrong. We waged a war but we did wrong as the state. We apologize for all these but this is our history that we need to settle with. Starting from the Kurdish issue, we will settle accounts with our centenarian history.’
Alper underlines that we are living in a country which has become a field of bodies of husbands, children and fathers of the women who are voiced in the film and adds; “Seven thousand and five hundred people don’t have a grave, their families aren’t even allowed to mourn for them. This is a matter that hurt not only my heart but also my conscience. In my opinion, people can no more escape from their identities in today’s communication age. I looked at the region from my own front and conscience.”
Alper’s first film Sonbahar, which was about the Back to Life Operation, a recent savagery in prisons and presents the post-prison process of a revolutionist prisoner who survived the operation, was granted for the best film at 15th Golden Boll Film Festival. In his new documentary-like film Future Lasts Forever, which has been released on 11 November, Alper this time takes the audience to the end of 90’s, to the process of civil war, unidentified murders and slaughters in Turkey over the story of Sumru who happens to go to Kurdish cities for a few months for the thesis she is studying at a university in Istanbul.
Alper says he decided to shoot this film many years ago as the Kurdish issue was always on his agenda. He was after telling the dirty war on the basis of women and children. Then, he added, he wrote the script in the region which he visited very often at different times. Alper notes that he always felt himself obliged to shoot this film because he is part of the generation of war. He adds the story of the script’s genesis is this: “As a young director, I wanted to film the war through women and children. I started writing the script in 2005 and there have been some changes in the film since then. I began the script with the story of a reporter of Dicle News Agency. I started writing a story about the reporter’s testimonies, unidentified murders and the families of their victims, families looking for their lost relatives and being young in the middle of the war. However, I made some changes on the script in the course of time and changed it into the present form.”
In the film Gelecek Uzun Sürer, Alper drifts away from neither the reality of war nor the cultural reality by using the language of daily life. The film begins with author Cesare Pavese's words "If one day the war ends, then we'll have to ask ourselves, what will we do with the dead, what did they die for?" and extends greetings to the brotherhood of peoples with the Hemsin language, Kurdish, Turkish and Armenian languages used in the stream. Alper underlines that the vehement dimension of the war comes into our lives through media while the war’s influence on women, young people and children are however being ignored.
Alper points out that it would be in contradiction with life if only the Turkish language was to be used in the film. Reminding of his mother tongue Hemsin language which is among the languages facing extinction, Alper tells that he wants different languages to appear in cinema, linking this opinion to his process at Mesopotamia Cultural Center (MKM) where he learnt about both cinema and the Kurdish struggle.
Contrary to his first film which arouses the feeling of despondency, Alper in this film makes difference with his “special” expression of hope, blessedness of life in the face of death, dignified peace in the face of war and instructiveness in the solution of the Kurdish problem. There was a positive environment in Turkey regarding a solution to the Kurdish problem in the period when he started shooting the film, while the current political environment is quite tense, points out the director and remarks that the Kurdish issue can’t be solved with the methods seen in the film because of the fact that it isn’t a matter of security.
“Can the Kurdish problem not be solved through politics?” asks Alper and continues as follows; “It doesn’t matter if the dying young people are guerillas or soldiers. Why did so many people die although this was a solvable problem? As well as trying to direct the audience to question this point, I also wanted in this film to remind warmongers and those affected by them that another way is also possible. I wish the film would make people tell their conscience that ‘things aren’t like what they see from where they stand’
Alper emphasizes that Kurds are the side suffering from savagery and explains that he used his camera and reversed it to enable some people to develop empathy. Reminding that the state has always tried the same thing, Alper says the followings; “The government closes the door of a room in the face of each problem that emerges. They have also closed doors to the peoples of this territory. The system should be grounded on confronting and settling accounts with the past and problems, not covering them up. From this point of view, I wanted to base the film on a sort of settlement and not forgetting. On this basis, I think establishing a truth commission and many other things can be achieved through the ability to see the pains of others. I would like the film to be a means for dominant powers to draw the conclusion that ‘Yes, we did wrong. We waged a war but we did wrong as the state. We apologize for all these but this is our history that we need to settle with. Starting from the Kurdish issue, we will settle accounts with our centenarian history.’
Alper underlines that we are living in a country which has become a field of bodies of husbands, children and fathers of the women who are voiced in the film and adds; “Seven thousand and five hundred people don’t have a grave, their families aren’t even allowed to mourn for them. This is a matter that hurt not only my heart but also my conscience. In my opinion, people can no more escape from their identities in today’s communication age. I looked at the region from my own front and conscience.”
