Oscar Peyrou. Life is Like a Waiting Room for Death. FIPRESCI, Valencia Film Festival.

Life is Like a Waiting Room for Death

The Turkish film “Bekleme Odasi” (“The Waiting Room”), which won the FIPRESCI Award at the 2004 Valencia Festival, is a deep reflection on the creative process and about loneliness and alienation. The film was directed, written, photographed and edited by Zeki Demirkubuz, who also starred in it. The atmosphere of the film is dark, as are the ideas of the protagonist. The story is uncomfortable and ambiguous, like real life. The result is a powerful psychological drama and a metaphor of the problems of writers and others artists.

The plot begins when film director Ahmet is trying to make a film version of Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” and believes himself to be arrogant and faithless while others think of him as an idealist, and a man of principles.

Demirkubuz first gained the notice of film critics and international audiences with “Innocence” (“Masumiyet”) and later with “The Third Page” (“Ucuncu Sayfa”), which were screened at numerous film festivals in Turkey and Europe, including Venice, Locarno and Rotterdam and the Boston Turkish Film Festival. This was followed by the successful reception of “Fate” (“Yazgi”) and “Confession” (“Itiraf”), which were among the films of the 2nd Boston Turkish Film Festival, and both films were screened at Un Certain Regard at Cannes. “Fate” and “Confession”, are the first two features in “Tales About Darkness”, a trilogy which concludes with “The Waiting Room” (‘Bekleme Odasi’). With “Fate” and “Confession,” Zeki Demirkubuz became the first director to have two films screened at the same time at Cannes.

Demirkubuz won a FIPRESCI award and the Best Director prize at the Istanbul Film Festival for “Fate” and “Confession.” “Fate” also won Best Director and Best 3rd Film awards, and the Jury Special Award at the 38th Golden Orange Film Festival in Antalya, Turkey. Zeki Demirkubuz won the Best Director of the Year Award with “The Waiting Room” (“Bekleme Odasi”) at the Istanbul Film Festival on April 24, 2004, and is now recognised by the FIPRESCI jury at Valencia.

Oscar Peyrou. FIPRESCI. Valencia Film Festival. 2004