Zeki Demirkubuz’s Words on Envy. News.
Zeki Demirkubuz talked to NTV about Kiskanmak (Envy), which he had based on Nahit Sirri Orik’s 1946 novel of the same title: “I was curious about what kind of tragedies an ugly woman could cause if she found the opportunity.”Zeki Demirkubuz, who won the “Best Film” award with Kader (Destiny) at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in 2006, is in the process of shooting Envy in Safranbolu. The film, which has a cast that includes Serhat Tutumluer, Berrak Tuzunatac and Nergis Ozturk, is an adaptation of the novel. The story takes place in the 1930s in Zonguldak, Turkey. This is Demirkubuz’s first period film.
Demirkubuz talked to us about the film, its characters and why he doesn’t use music in his films: “I’m in the process of making a film which, once again, is about human nature.
In that sense, it’s not very different from my other films. The biggest difference lies in the film’s atmosphere, the world it’s talking about and in its being a period film. Period films are quite different. They’re more demanding. For example, the house we used in the film was built from scratch. We had to haul truckloads of stuff from Istanbul. The costumes had to be made.
I was touched by the concept of ugliness. I thought a lot about what it means to be ugly. I tried to understand how beauty is seen from the point of view of the ugly. I really gave it a lot of time and effort. I was very curious about what would be going on in the world of a person, or an ugly woman whom we’d never notice, would never pay any attention to and what tragedies she may cause if given the opportunity. When I decided to shoot the novel, I forgot about everything else and totally concentrated on this: to make the audience feel the personalities. It doesn’t matter if the audience likes or dislikes the characters, or if they can relate to them or not. That’s what I want, anyway. You meet a person. It doesn’t matter if you like that person a lot, or if you hate him/her. If that person doesn’t evoke a feeling of personality in you, your love or hate will go away in a few days. But a personality, whatever it is, evokes something in you. It creates a feeling. And that is exactly what my purpose is. It doesn’t matter if it takes place here, or abroad. I just want to see them feel such a personality. And I do.
Why don’t I use music in my films? Cinema with music is a bad marriage. It’s a strange marriage. There are sordid marriages which have no criteria, where people use each other. People find themselves in that relationship just to use each other. Nowadays, the relationship between cinema and music seems to have taken that form. They cover each other’s dirty laundry. If I see it this way, then I need to be careful about it. More than that, I also should show an attitude about it. If you cannot do a scene as it should be done, or if you cannot convey the scene’s purpose, then music comes into play.”
Ntvmsnbc.com. December 12, 2008.
Translated from Turkish.
