News about Metruk’s screening at FIFE 28th International Environmental Film Festival, Paris -France
News about Metruk’s selection for the 7th IAWRT Asian Women’s Films Festival , New Delhi-India
Category Archives: Metruk (The Abandoned)
Meeting with the Audiences via Skype Connection
Metruk was screened at the 28th Paris International Environmental Film Festival on 27 November and 30 November. I made Skype video call with the audiences in the theater for both 2 days. It was very exciting and interesting experience for me attending to this festival. Thanks to festival organizators.
Audiences were curious for the abandoned houses in my film. They asked if there were any restoration/renovation process for them, how old they were, where the owners were etc. It was sad for me to answer that nothing has changed positively but negatively since the time when I finished the project. Nobody cares about them and they are still waiting for their death gonna happen soon I am afraid…
Metruk (The Abandoned) is Selected for FIFE 2010
28th International Environmental Film Festival (Festival International du Film d’Environnement) – FIFE will be taken place in La Pagode and several other movie theaters in and around Paris between 24 to 30 November, 2010. The festival offers 140 films from 38 different countries: Documentaries, fictions, short films… Isabelle Giordano is the godmother of the 28th edition of the International Environmental Film Festival.
Metruk is selected for the FIFE 2010 in the category of “Housing and Construction” with the theme of “Urban”. It will be screened on Saturday, 27 November at 11:30 a.m. and also on Tuesday, 30 November at 11:45 a.m. in Paris. We will have a Q & A session via Skype for both days.
Metruk’s World Premiere was in Izmir
I was invited to 11th International Izmir Short Film Festival which was held on between 3-7 November 2010 with my short experimental documentary Metruk (The Abandoned). This year, the only competition category was for the short fictions. Metruk was selected for the documentary category with 9 other documentaries from the world and Turkey.
Metruk was screened on Saturday 6, November as a final movie of 17:00 session. It was nice and exciting screening for me.
Jury members selected Aprilis Suskhi as best film. Jury Special Prize went to Berf. A special festival award for 11th year went to An’ı Yaşamak.
I met some filmmaker friends and other friends who are on film business and we spent enjoyable time together such as attending parties, dinners etc. We watched interesting short films from all over the world during 2 days we spent in Izmir.
International Izmir Short Film Festival is one of the most remarkable short film festivals in Turkey. I wish them to find more fund, support and sponsorships in the future. Izmir’s audiences were wonderful with their excite, interest and cinema love. Many of them had to watch the films were standing still because the auditorium was full for all sessions. Many thanks to Festival’s President and also Izmir Cinema Association’s President Kayhan Kırmızıgül, Festival Program Director Tuna Yılmaz and other festival people for their kindness and support.
Orkide Ünsür & Kayhan Kırmızıgül
Theron Patterson & Orkide Ünsür
Metruk (The Abandoned) is selected for the 11th Izmir International Short Film Festival
11th International Izmir Short Film Festival which organized by Izmir Cinema Association will be held November 3-7, 2010. The competition category is only for fiction films. Metruk is selected for the category of documentary and it will be screened on Thursday 4 November at 13:00 p.m. The screenings will be at the auditorium of Izmir Turkish-American Association.
The Jury Members are:
Prof. Dr. Sevda Alankuş, Dean ( İzmir Economy University, Faculty of Communication)
Zeynep Özbatur Atakan, Producer
Volga Sorgu, Actor
Joel Foulet, Editor, Director
Theron Patterson, Director
Yeşim Tabak, Film Critic (Sabah Newspaper)
Ragıp Taranç, Assistant Professor (Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Fine Arts Department of Film Design
Burcu Tatlıses, Musician, Lyricist, Short Film Director
Andreas Treske, Editor (Yasar University, Faculty of Communication)
Mehmet Hadi Baran, Mardin Cinema Association President
Canan Demet Kebapçılar, Columnist (Haber Turk Newspaper)
OFFICIAL SELECTION OF INTERNATIONAL IZMIR SHORT FILM FESTIVAL:
Opening Film:
Glukhota: Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (Ukraine)
Competition Films:
Kain: Kristof Hoornaert (Belgium)
Zu Vermieten: Emre Karapınar & İsmail Onay (Turkiye-Germany)
Hayerida: Shai Miedzinski (Israel)
Bugün Yok/No Today: İsmet Kurtuluş (Turkiye)
To My Mother and Father/Anne ve Babama: Can Evrenol (Turkiye)
Oma Rennt: Nikolaus von Uthmann (Germany)
Berf/Kar: Erol Mintaş (Turkiye-Romania)
Diarchia: Ferdinando Cito Filomarino (Italy)
All Flowers in Time: Jonathan Caouette (Canada)
Kindergeld: Övünç Güvenışık (Turkiye)
Aprilis Suskhi: Tornike Bziava (Georgia)
World Premiers:
Tatlıya Her Zaman Yer Vardır/There’s Always Room for Dessert: Müge Bayraktar (Turkiye)
Ayna/Mirror: Irmak Yamaç (Turkiye)
Screening Programme:
Fiction:
Anı Yaşamak/Living the Moment: Hakan Metin Mercan (Turkiye)
Khaneam Abrist: Karim Azimi (Iran)
Telepfone: Jeffrey Anderson Bliss (U.S.A.)
Mukadderat/Fatality: Cenk Kaptan (Turkiye)
Coming Attractions: Peter Tscherkassky (Austria)
Venus vs Me: Nathalie Teirlinck (Belgium)
Bear Market: James S. Blose (U.S.A.)
Transparent: Sammy Fransquet (Belgium)
Le Hobby: Nicolas Zappi (France)
Babam ve Spike/My Dad and Spike: Murat Kebir (Turkiye)
Candy Darling: Silvia Defrance (Belgium)
In Scale: Marina Moshkova (Russia)
Cigarette Candy: Lauren Wolkstein (U.S.A.)
Jour 0: Vincent Diderot (France)
The External World: David O’Reilly (Ireland)
Voice Wanted: Maria Stoyanova (Bulgaria)
WAGs: Evi Goldbrunner & Joachim Dollhopf (Germany)
Calling the Minstrel: Genevieve Appleton (Canada)
18: Nehir Tuna (Turkiye)
Seppi und Hias/Seppi ve Hias: Emre Koca (Turkiye-Germany)
Film ya da Film/Film or Film: Şükrü Apaydın (Turkiye)
Emanet/Custody: Ali Cem Doğan & Ayberk Olgay (Turkiye)
Documentary:
Tres Tristes Tigres: David Munoz (Spain)
Nea Radu /Fellow Radu: Stefan Scarlatescu (Romania)
Maturarul: Stefan Scarlatescu (Romania)
Kwa Heri Mandima: Robert-Jan Lacombe (Switzerland)
Metruk/The Abandoned: Orkide Ünsür (Turkiye)
Babam Tarih Yapıyor/My Father is Making History: Haydar Demirtaş (Turkiye)
Urban Bugs: Aykut Alp Ersoy (Turkiye)
Camgeran: Nagihan Çakar (Turkiye)
Metruk (The Abandoned) is selected for the Ladyfest Ten
Ladyfest is a global independent arts festival promoting and celebrating women’s creativity and counter-culture. It turns 10 years old this year. Ladyfest Ten takes place from Friday 12th until Sunday 14th November across various North London venues and it will involve iconic and emerging female talent from every field such as music, film, literature, craft, comedy and much more.
Metruk is selected for the LADYFEST TEN SHORTS and it will be screened on Friday 12 November, 2010 in London.
(Source: www.ladyfestten.com)
“Screening For Friends”
We had a special event “Screening for Friends” on 17th October 2010 for screening of my short film Metruk (The Abandoned) at Liman Kahvesi in Kadıköy, Istanbul.
Right after they watched Metruk, we had Q/A session. My friends made me sweat with their intelligent and interesting questions.
It was a quite enjoyable and exciting afternoon for me. In the future I am planning to make another screening at the European side of Istanbul for the friends who missed this event. Many thanks to all my participant friends who took their time with me and my film in this wonderful sunny Sunday.
(Special thanks to Liman Kahvesi, its hepful crew and Murat Seçkin.)
Orkide Ünsür
Copyright of the Photographs Orkide Ünsür 2010 ©
Director’s Statement
When I was a child, me and couple of my friends were very interested in playing around abandoned houses. We used to call them “Haunted Houses”. I loved them, though they scared me some.
I find these abandoned houses helpless, sad in a state of condemnation and loneliness. It seems that they have an amount of pride and integrity even in the state they’re in. People neither live in, nor collapse them. Basically, they’re just “hanging around.” People just pass by them without caring nor wondering, taking for granted their destiny to disappear bit by bit.
A home is a very special place which gives us privacy and provides us with a warm, secure nest. It’s our shelter. As a community, we have shared love, joy, happiness and bad times with seemly mixed emotions in these houses. In appearance, it gives a somewhat claustrophobic effect. Almost like our relationships with our loved ones. Once we cruelly leave these houses to their loneliness, the house turns into a devastated place as time passes. Like abandoned lovers. These houses are very gothic for me because they bring weirdness which is actually enormously familiar to us normally. Take a word like “Heim” that means home in German and “Unheimlich” (Unhomely) means “creepy, spooky, uncanny”. These two words have the same root “home”. I find them very charming and interesting. The correlation between them is relevant to our lifes.
In my neighbourhood, I have seen these abandoned houses for a long time. I took some pictures last year.
I was thinking about making a short docu this year. Months ago I realized this one in particular, is very close to collapsing because of the fire and it was looking very dangerous for the humans and animals as well in its neighborhood . So I immediately decided to shoot this movie before it was too late! I had no fund at the time or sponsor. I spoke to my cameraman friend Umut Can Sevindik and his partner Hasan Serin in Alternatiffilm. I explained the situation and how I’ve been feeling about these abandoned houses and mentioned to them about my project. They love the idea! As they believed in the project and supported me. So with a small amount of production & post production money I produced my short film. We worked together and made Metruk (The Abandoned).
Of course there are many other abandoned houses in Istanbul but I just wanted to focus on the ones in my neighborhood only. I aim to help these houses with my movie because if Metruk is screened so many festivals or broadcasted some TV channels the authorities or rich investors may want to refurbish couple of them as they are historical old houses. I consider it to be kind of a duty on my behave to brighten my neighborhood and glorify something that has meaning as well as history.
Orkide Ünsür
Metruk (The Abandoned): A short experimental documentary by Orkide Ünsür
Watch the trailer
Metruk ( The Abandoned )
Genre: Short Experimental Documentary, Duration: 12′ 07”
Producer & Director: Orkide Ünsür, Camera & Editing: Umut Can Sevindik
LOGLINE: Condemned houses are like abandoned lovers.
SYNOPSIS: Condemned houses are like abandoned lovers that once shared good and bad moments. Now, because of abandonment and rejection they are left alone for selfdistruction. They are disappointed, upset and same proud. They’ll try to survive by resisting the passing of time. Yet if the lover comes back again one day, there is no possibility for living again together in the same house as it is. The house is now disconnected, worn by the weather and the aging of its stillness. The home has no more to offer as it once did.
Filmmaker Orkide Ünsür is observing the condemned houses in her neighbourhood…
(Special thanks to Alternatiffilm…)
Orkide Ünsür 