Ayca Ciftci. The Third Page. Mental Minefields: The Dark Tales of Zeki Demirkubuz.
The Third Page
In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky writes, “If God doesn’t exist, everything is permitted.” Demirkubuz, who frequently refers to Dostoyevsky’s influence on his stories, builds a godless world but with two innocent characters: İsa (Jesus) and Meryem (Mary). The innocence of the characters in Üçüncü Sayfa (The Third Page, 1999) is underlined first and foremost by their names, despite their betrayals, lies, even murders. “The third page” is a special term in Turkish journalism which refers to the news published on page three of the tabloids, featuring shocking crime stories, usually from the lower classes. The Third Page demolishes the grammar of this third page newspaper writing, using a story with a typical page threequality to it.
The narrative is built between an unsuccessful suicide attempt and a successful one. İsa who makes his living as an extra in the movies is in trouble with the poky mafia of a poor neighborhood for not paying back his loan. Out of hopelessness, he points a gun to his head and waits for the moment when he will find the strength to kill himself. But when he fires his gun a few minutes later, he does not shoot himself but his landlord. From this murder on, the gun seeks one target after another and the notion of death envelops the whole narrative. While İsa endeavors to survive, he points the gun at various targets, but not himself. Finally, the idea of death rotates to its origin and this time points to İsa.
The world of The Third Page is visually gloomy. However, this is not a stylish darkness. The mafia, the perfect murder, and the femme fatale are narrated in an unvarnished style. They are lit with realistic darkness. While İsa is forced to pay his loan, a discussion on the rate of exchange between the Turkish Lira and US dollar takes place. Perfect murder plans fail, an unplanned and unreasonable murder occurs spontaneously over a simple gambling dispute. At the end of the film, the femme fatale appears as innocent as İsa. All these build a narrative that refrains from stylizing characters, events or feelings to suit aesthetic preference.
Although the film sets a realistic feel through the narration, it reflects on the concept of fiction. For instance, the television is usually on in the background, echoing similar stories of different people. We see the set of the series in which İsa is an extra. Through these self-reflexive elements, the film could be read as deconstructing its own realistic approach. However, the most effective use of this self-reflexivity makes another reading possible. We watch the extras portraying themselves, talking about their dreams in the cast shootings. While listening to these people amidst the story of İsa, we realize something about real life: people seeking their roles in life, struggling to define themselves, are just like extras seeking lead roles. So, while underlining the notion of fiction, The Third Page exposes the fiction within real life. When it is İsa’s turn, he says that his dream is to get the lead role in a movie; he wants to perform “a surviving man despite all his suffering.” That is what he attempts to do in real life, after he meets Meryem. Had Meryem not deceived him, the film would have had a happy ending with İsa taking the role he was always dreaming about. But the script (or destiny) does not allow this dream. Therefore, İsa quits performing as he could not find apart at all. As the film ends in absolute darkness, we come to think that not a single dream comes true in such a dark world. Here, everybody falls behind life.
Ayca Ciftci. Mental Minefields: The Dark Tales of Zeki Demirkubuz. Eds. Zeynep Dadak – Enis Kostepen. New York: Altyazi, Arte East, Moon and Stars Project. 2007.
