POYRAZ / BOREAS trailer

to view Poyraz online click here.


13'25'', 35 mm (1.85:1), Dolby SR, Color
V.O. Turkish, 2006 © Turkey


tagline

A poetic short film set in an idyllic landscape which evokes the "vision splendid" of childhood.

synopsis

Living with elderly relatives in a remote old house in the mountains the Child reticently observes the daily routine of rustic life and glimpses the mysteries of life and death.

dialogue excerpt

Child: I saw him again.

Old Lady: Louder, I can't hear you.

Child: I saw him again... on the river.

Old Lady: You'll take me there at dawn.

technical info & credits

original title Poyraz

english translation Boreas

genre short fiction

shooting format 35mm

screening format 35mm

aspect ratio 1.85:1

sound Dolby SR

frame rate 25fps

running time 13'25''

length 400m

no. of reels 1

preview format DVD Region 0, PAL

original version Turkish

country of production Turkey

year of production 2006

first screening Cannes, 26^th May 2006

production co. FiLMiK productions

co-producer & sales representative inHouse Projects (Berke Bas)

cast Seyma Uzunlar, Sevinc Bas, Oktay Kaptan, O. Rustu Bas, Mujgan Ozturk, Citir

written& directed by Belma Bas

producer Seyhan Kaya

director of photography Mehmet Y. Zengin

film editor Berke Bas

set decoration Budak Akalin, Yasemin Ozcan Kaya, Serpil Ulker

sound Ismail Karadas

original soundtrack Erdem Helvacioglu

camera assistants Serdar Guz, Ceren Yildiz

lighting Ferdi Eskicioglu, Sinan Yildirim

director's statement

"The child is father of the man"
W. Wordsworth

POYRAZ (BOREAS) is about a child's first encounter with death, or rather with an image of death, encapsulated in all those splendid visions of early childhood wandering between reality and dream. Throughout one's life, I presume, every man and woman is haunted consciously or unconsciously by their own unique version of that first image. In making this film my collaborators and I embarked, in a way, on a quest to assemble scattered pieces of such an image, delving into sights and sounds, recollections and inspirations, and daydreams and nightmares.
The title of the film refers to Greek God of North Wind--AKA Boreas! AKA Poyraz!--and the fictional land beyond the North Wind, Hyperborea, where people live in a perfect bliss for a thousand years. The film was shot on location in our family village on the north-eastern Black Sea Coast of Turkey, a place that somehow reminds me of Hyperborea, both with its mountainous topography and its inhabitants who are no less strong in the face of gale winds than those legendary Hyperboreans. So it is worth to note that my actors are natives of the region and happen to be my family as well: my mother, my father, my uncle, my niece, and a very close neighbor.
There is also a hint to a long-lost love story from my family history: that my great-grandmother had been torn apart from her husband during WWI, just two months after their wedding when she was pregnant to my grandmother; that he had gone to fight in the Battle of Sarikamis where so many soldiers frozen to death and never returned home; even so she had waited for him all her life... Of course this story is being glimpsed through the eyes of a child who is just about to, yet somehow resists to cross the threshold of growing up.
Thus POYRAZ is a kind of lamentation over the loss of childhood along with losing all privileges nature, rather than society, bestowed upon it. Consequently, for me there is one burning question underneath the quiet surface of the film:
What does growing up really mean? Coming to terms with death?..

awards-screenings

Nomination For Short Film Palme d'Or
Cannes 2006

Special Jury Prize
Antalya Film Festival National Short Film Competition 2006

Best Fiction Film
Akbank Short Film Competition, Istanbul 2006

Special Mention
CurtaCinema 2006, Rio De Janeiro

Best Sound Editing & Best Soundtrack
MostraMundo The Moving Image Festival, Recife 2006

HISAR Shortfilm Selection '06
Best 10 Turkish Short Films of the year 2006

First Prize & Best Director Award
Inventa un Film-LenolaFilmFestival, Italy 2007

Mention for an International Film
La Cittadella del Corto, Italy 2007

Tuscany Film Commission Filming the Landscape Award
Capalbio Cinema Short Film Festival, Italy 2007

Prize of the Jury
13th Lessinia Film Festival, Italy 2007

Best Balkan Film Award
13th International Short Film Festival in Drama, Greece 2007

f e s t i v a l s c r e e n i n g s

---------2006---

59^th Cannes Film Festival-Official Competition, France

59^th Locarno Film Festival-Official Competition, Switzerland

12^th Sarajevo Film Festival, Bosnia-Herzegovina

17^th Sao Paulo Short Film Festival, Brazil

4^th Mediterranean Short Film Festival of Tangier, Morocco

7^th Seoul Film Festival, South Korea

43^rd Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Turkey

IMAGO – 7th Int'l Young Film Festival, Fuñdao, Portugal

51^st Cork Film Festival, Ireland,

13^th Women Make Waves Film Festival, Taiwan

12^th Geneva CINEMA TOUT ECRAN, Int'l Film & TV Festival

20^th Int'l filmfest Braunschweig, Germany

Kurzfilmfest Köln UNLIMITED #1, Germany

17^th Stockholm Int'l Film Festival, Sweden

2^nd MostraMundo The Moving Image Festival, Recife, Brazil

12^th European Film Festival-Festival On Wheels, Ankara-Kars-Tbilisi

11^th Siena International Short Film Festival, Italy

48^th Int'l Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao, Spain

13^th Rio de Janeiro Short Film Festival-CurtaCinema 2006, Brazil

3^rd Akbank Short Film Festival, Turkey

---------2007---

Kun.Kortfilm International Short Film Festival in Copenhagen

18^th Trieste Film Festival, Italy

Quintessence-Ouidah Int. Film Festival, Quidah-Benin

12^th Turkey-Germany Film Festival in Nurnberg, Germany

5^th Filmmor Int'l Women Film Festival on Wheels, Turkey

6^th Tiburon Film Festival, CA, USA

3^rd Hisar Short Film Festival, Istanbul-Turkey

26^th Istanbul Int. Film Festival, Turkey

21^st Int. Festival of Films for Children and Young Adults, Iran

53^rd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany

9^th Eskisehir Int. Film Festival, Turkey

8^th aluCine Toronto Latin@ Media Festival, Canada

4th Bodrum Film Festival, Turkey

47^th Krakow Film Festival

35^th Huesca Film Festival, Spain

54^th Sydney Film Festival, Australia

14^th Capalbio Cinema Short Film Festival, Tuscany, Italy

13^th Aye Aye Film Festival, Nancy, France

10^th Lenolafilmfestival-Inventa un Film 2007

6^th Euganea MovieMovement, Monselice, Italy

5^th Tabor Short Film Festival, Croatia

13th Lessinia Film Festival, Italy

2nd Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series, USA

11^th MadCat Women’s International Film Festival in San Francisco USA

13^th International Short Film Festival in Drama, Greece

2nd Heart of Gold Int. Film Festival in Gympie, Australia

13th MedFilm Festival CINEMA of the Mediterranean in Rome, Italy

19th Istanbul Int. Short Film Festival, Turkey

13th Kolkata Film Festival, India

2nd ArteEast CinemaEast Film Festival, New York, US

10th EthnoFilmFest, Berlin

10th Olympia Int. Film Festival, Greece

2nd Silkroad Film Festival, Bursa

---------2008---

2nd Psarokokola Int. Film Festiva, Athens

Women's Cinema from Tangier to Tehran, London

6th Paris Tout Court- Paris Int. Short Film Festival

press clippings

.... Bu akşam verilecek ödüller ne olursa olsun, Türk sineması açısından önemli bir yıl yaşadık. Ceylan, ya da kısa filmi 'Poyraz' ile yarışan Belma Baş sahneye çıkamasalar bile, yaratıcı Türk sinemasında gözlemlenen yeniden doğuş, uluslararası düzeyde kendini kanıtlamış bulunuyor.

[.... No matter who wins the award tonight, this has been a significant year for Turkish Cinema. Even if Ceylan, or Belma Bas with her film 'Boreas' in the shorts competition, might not walk up to the stage at the ceremony, the creative rebirth of Turkish Cinema manifested itself on an international scale.]

Mehmet Basutçu, Radikal, May 28, 2006
reporting from Cannes Film Festival

.... The section that gave me most pleasure, however, and that offers very encouraging signs for future Balkan film production, was the shorts competition. There were a dozen delights, from the textures of Turk Belma Bas's 'Boreas' to the threat of Hungarian Tamas Kemenyffy's 'Lucky Man'.

Wally Hammond, Time Out London, September 6, 2006

reporting from Sarajevo Film Festival

.... Seçkin imajlar havuzu. Belma Baş'ın ilk yönetmenlik denemesi Poyraz hafif hafif eserken bir resim çiziveriyor. On üç dakikalık bu film, Karadeniz'in doğasından, yaşlı bir evin koridorlarından, odalarından yola çıkarak, küçük bir kızın gözünden hayatın akışkanlığına fantastik bir bakış atıveriyor. Tarkovsky'nin kamerasını anıştıran dinginlikte yol alan film, orta yerinde direksiyon kırıyor ve tahmin edilebilir olmaktan uzaklaşıp puslu görüntülerinin hakkını vererek puslanıveriyor, tahmin edilemez, dille ifade edilemez bir hal alıyor. Hikaye görüntü oluveriyor, görüntü dile geliyor.

[ .... A pool of exceptional images, Belma Bas' directorial debut breezes a picture on the screen through a gentle brush of the wind. Impelled by the natural beauty of [Turkey's] Black Sea Region and interiors and hallways of an old house, this 13-minute film fantastically depicts the flux of life from the viewpoint of a little girl. The film begins serenely suggesting a Tarkovskien cinematography, but unexpectedly changes course towards the halfway becoming as vaguely cloaked as the misty landscapes running on the screen, going beyond the realm of language: in such a way that the story mutates into images and images cease to be mute.]

Deniz Buga, Altyazı, July-August 2006

.... With poetic cinematography and a deeply personal love for her characters, Belma Bas tells a slightly surreal fairytale. A little boy and his old mother live on the isolated Turkish countryside, at the banks of the Black Sea. Through the boy’s eyes we see his discoveries of life and death and get to share his pain of growing up. The surroundings are dark yet beautiful, in a world where time stands still. Bas hints towards storytellers such as Bergman, Dickens and Tarkovsky in this mysterious story set somewhere between dream and reality.

Natalie Majerski, Stockholm International Film Festival 2006

... There are another two visually breath-taking works that are refreshing and ethereal. In Boreas (2006), the Turkish director Belma Bas delves into the mystery of life and death through the life of a boy who lives with several of his aged relatives. The other is Ana Prieto's Silence which resembles a short poem.

ZHENG Li-Ming, Women Make Waves Film Festival 2006

... Ma in assoluto l'ultimo giorno, domenica pomeriggio, ha riservato le perle migliori. Due cortometraggi di altrettanti Cinematografie emergenti o incomprese al grande pubblico occidentale, "Poyraz" di Belma Bas dalla Turchia e "Girni" di Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni dall'India.

[.... But absolutely the last day, Sunday afternoon, was reserved for the best pearls: Two short films with as much emerging or incomprehensible cinematographies to the general western public, "Poyraz" by Belma Bas from Turkey and "Girni" by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni from India.]

Andrea Mugnai, kulturadimazza
reporting from Cork Film Festival 2006

.... Participating in the festival with her short "Boreas," Director Belma Baş said she has chosen, as her main character, a child whose sex is impossible to tell. She said she did this deliberately, to study when the sexual identity is placed on a person. She added this was a topic she would like to expand upon in her future films. Baş also expressed that not only men, but also women pressure other women. Saying that she has seen many strong women, or "Amazons," in her own words, she added, "Pressure toward women not only stems from men but also women themselves. The pressure of the mother-in-law on a bride is much heavier..."

Yasemin Sim Esmen, Turkish Daily News, March 8, 2007
reporting from FILMMOR Women's Film Festival press conference

Production Notes

The film was shot on location in the family village of the director, in Ordu, on the Northeastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. The derelict family house in the village was redecorated as in old times.

The principal photography started on the 17th September 2005 and took twelve days. The crew went back to the location one month later for four-day pickup shooting.

140 minutes (appx. 4000 meters) of 35mm Kodak film stock (all short-ends!) was used for the 13-minute film. The first draft was 19 minutes.

Offline editing with Final Cut Pro 5 took nearly seven months (with part-time working) being completed in March 2006.

This appx. USD30,000-budget short film was supported mainly by the director's family with big sacrifices (both financially and through providing accommodation, catering, transportation etc.) as well as the top-notch studios and laboratories from the Turkish film industry via providing either in-kind support or great discounts.

This film is a debut
for Belma Bas both as writer and director,
for Mehmet Y. Zengin as director of photography
for Berke Bas as a picture (and sound) editor for a fiction work.

All the actors are non-professional and it's their first time appearance on the silver screen. Besides, they are all natives of the region and relatives of the director: the ferryman, her father; Lutfiye (the woman), her mother; Reis (the man) her mother's brother; the child, her niece; and the "old lady" a very close neighbor whose mother and uncle once looked after by the director's family in the village house where the film was shot.

The actor O. Rustu Bas (the ferryman), started to grow beard for his part 12 months preceding the principal photography, for the first time in his life and only for 15 seconds of screen time.

full cast & crew

CAST

child Seyma Uzunlar

Lutfiye Sevinc Bas

Reis Oktay Kaptan

old lady Mujgan Ozturk

ferryman O. Rustu Bas

dog Cytyr

...

CREW

written & directed by Belma Bas

producer Seyhan Kaya

co-producer Berke Bas

produced by Budak Akalin -FiLMiK Productions

director of photography Mehmet Y. Zengin

editing Berke Bas

sounds Ismail Karadas

original soundtrack Erdem Helvacioglu

set decoration&costumes Budak Akalin, Yasemin Özcan Kaya,

Sevinc Bas, Serpil Ulker, Ulfet Keser

assistant director Serpil Ulker

camera assistants Serdar Guz, Ceren Yildiz

gaffer Ferdi Eskicioglu

best boy Sinan Yildirim

location guides O. Rustu Bas, Ekim Kaptan

catering Sevinc Bas, Tulay Kaptan, Fatma Baloglu

transportation Namik Kemal Uzunlar, Kenan Bulak

technical consultants Semih Kaplanoglu, Kerem Kurdoglu,

Hilmi Etikan, Mehmet Aksin, Melis Birder

laboratory SINEFEKT Post Produksiyon Hizmetleri A.S.

laboratory manager Yusuf Ozbek

print process Mustafa Koc, Ersan Gumus, Ayhan Kisa

film developing Ilhan Ozkan, Sinan Kilic, Suleyman Goktas,

Orhan Turgut, Aydin Yeniceri, Erhan Cakir, Cengiz Koc

negative cutting Selahattin Turgut, Bora Buyukdikbas

color correction Burcu Doganay

mixing studio IMAJ Istanbul

sound re-recording mixer Serdar Ongoren

negative sound transfer Yasar Ozdemir

telecine-transfer SINEMAJ

technical manager Hakan Toptas

senior colorists Serdar Ercer, Dilek Er

junior colorist Ozkan Ozenen

spotting for subtitles Murat Karahan

translators Idil Uzel, Chantal Menard, Aline Penisi

graphics Budak Akalin

with the contribution of

SINEFEKT Post Produksiyon Hizmetleri A.S.

IMAJ Istanbul

ERMAN FILM

GOLGE ISIK PRODUKSIYON

KODAK

DOLBY

SINEMAJ

AKADEMI PRODUCTION