Envy

Zonguldak, 1930s… On the night of October 29th, a Republic Ball is being held. In this small, dull coal town, Halit, a mining engineer who moved here two months ago, his exceptionally beautiful wife Mükerrem, Halit’s sister and their guest Seniha, are among the guests. When Nüshet, the son of the wealthiest family in town, invites Mükerrem to dance, Seniha, sitting in a corner and watching them, immediately realizes that her sister-in-law will not be able to resist this handsome young man. At that moment, she understands that God has decided to elevate her from the fate of accepting ugliness to the destiny of beauty.

Although Envy seems to be a story primarily dealing with themes of human nature such as ugliness, beauty, jealousy, and passion, I considered adapting it into a film because, at its core, it is a story about human destiny. The tale of Seniha, whose destiny is defined by the god-given ugliness she was born with, as she evolves from accepting this fate to becoming the one who writes the destiny of beauty she despises, is one of the rare stories about the human soul that caught my attention. I thought that a story which questions beauty through ugliness, and tells it openly and unapologetically, would contribute to the effort of understanding and conveying human suffering.

When I first read Nahit Sırrı Örik’s novel, I was immediately struck by its deep observations about the situation described above, the way it avoids clichés in the creation of characters, its impartiality in the narrative, and the fact that it never falls into the traps of showiness or pretension, even when presenting the most tragic events. It also maintains a simplicity and directness that never leaves its grasp. I was particularly impressed by the story’s approach, which I believe to be a form of ethical storytelling. Despite taking place in the early years of the Republic, the story almost completely ignores the historical reality of the time and does not distort the unchanging nature of the human soul in the creation of art. From this perspective, it becomes clear that humanity’s fate and spiritual reality have never changed, and the only thing that has changed is physical reality. If Hamlet still tells today’s story, then Nahit Sırrı’s approach is certainly the right one.