White as Snow’s Trial by Popcorn and Cola / Ege Görgün (Landlord)

Esquire, May 2011

“White as Snow” was the only Turkish film in the competition section of the Sofia Film Festival, held from 04 to 13 March. Having returned from Sofia with the “special jury” award, the film opens in cinemas on 13 May. Let’s see whether the film the festival jury liked will find favour with cinema audiences.

Sabahattin Ali has not been forgotten. Just like all the writers and poets executed by nameless killers because their ideas ran counter to the state policies and tendencies of their time. These were states flirting with femmes fatales such as nationalism and fascism. In the eyes of those who supported such a liaison, Sabahattin Ali too was a “bad guy”, a threat. After all, he was a dirty “commie”. In 1948 he was shot dead while attempting to flee from Turkey to Bulgaria. The killer was the very person who was supposed to help Sabahattin Ali cross the Bulgarian border safely, and he was sentenced to four years in prison. A few weeks later, however, he benefited from a general amnesty and walked free. Much later, it emerged that the killer was a National Intelligence officer. Another rumour had it that he was not the real killer and had merely taken the blame. Sabahattin Ali had fallen victim to relationships as tangled as they were dark.

Sabahattin Ali was found near the Bulgarian border on 2 April 1948. There was something ironic about watching, 63 years later at the Sofia Film Festival, a film adapted from one of his stories. Didn’t this mean that Sabahattin Ali had in fact crossed the border safe and sound, and that those who wanted to stop him and silence him had failed? “White as Snow” is a free adaptation of Sabahattin Ali’s story “Ayran”. Ayran is simply a drink made with yoghurt, water and salt. Simple but delicious, just like the film itself. When it comes to a story only five or six book pages long, like “Ayran”, a free adaptation is a necessity. But despite the additions to the story, the new characters and the changes of place and time, it must be said that “White as Snow” is a successful adaptation. The reason, in my opinion, is that it has managed to transfer the essence of the story onto film and to bring the right emotion to the screen.

IN “AYRAN”, THE STORY is set in the 1940s. In “White as Snow”, although it is not made very explicit, we go to the 1970s, the period of Turkey’s second military coup. The mountainous parts of the Northern Black Sea have been chosen as the setting. The film tells the story of Hasan, a 12-year-old boy. Hasan has to cover the kilometres between his home and the main road every day to sell ayran. What’s more, the minibus carrying the passengers he dreams of selling ayran to passes along this road only twice a day. After his father went to prison the family fell into poverty, and while his mother works in the town, away from home, looking after his two younger siblings has also become a responsibility Hasan must carry on his small shoulders. Although Hasan is at the centre of the film, there are other parallel stories too: the father, the mother, an old man from another village, a young engineer from the big city who is unhappy at being posted to this rural region, and so on…

DIRECTOR SELİM GÜNEŞ HAS a 20-year background in photography. The approach that stems from this expertise can be seen in the film too. He prefers to tell his story through cinematography rather than words. He is aware that cinema and photography are similar storytelling tools, and that trying to bring them together in one film can sometimes have bad results. By staying in the border zone, Güneş has done his very best. It could be said that he has thus, to some extent, overcome the stillness of photography. Yes, compared to mainstream films, “White as Snow” is still a slow film and may struggle to sell tickets at the box office. But which festival film doesn’t go through that? That is one of the disadvantages of making art-house cinema. It is also a signpost that says to the audience: “The film you are watching is not a product of consumer culture and savage capitalism.”

“WHITE AS SNOW”, despite some moments that lack a cinematic feel, definitely deserves our respect as a first film. Not only for its cinematography but also for its approach… It is an approach that brings Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Semih Kaplanoğlu to mind. “White as Snow” could be seen as running in the same lane as the films of these directors. But if we must compare, it has to be said that Selim Güneş has opted for a more conventional storyline (Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Üç Maymun” is the only exception in this comparison).

We shouldn’t finish without adding that the music used in the film is extraordinary. You could watch the film a second time just to listen to its music. The talented musician Mircan has worked wonders with folk songs whose roots reach back to north-eastern Turkey and Georgia. Indeed, at the 47th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in 2010, the “Best Music” award went to “White as Snow”.

FIRST-HAND

“I DON’T LEAVE THE JOB TO THE CINEMATOGRAPHER”

-SELİM GÜNEŞ-

Some directors prefer to do it this way: they set up the camera, name the lens, decide on the performances and leave the rest to the cinematographer. That goes against my grain. So in the film, I decided in every single shot how the framing and the image would be.

The fact that the audience’s first reactions to the film usually began with “The images are magnificent” both pleased me and bothered me; it raised question marks in my mind about photographic images. In my second film, I will keep these question marks in mind and be even more meticulous.

The white horse is my obsession. It is reflected in my photography too. In cinema, a director can sometimes do certain things simply because he wants them that way.

Today, when Turkish cinema is mentioned abroad, the name that comes to mind is Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Credit where it’s due. I like and admire him too. That doesn’t mean I love every one of his films, of course. For example, I love “Uzak”, but I don’t like “İklimler”.

Audiences may see similarities between our films. But even if I had never seen a single Nuri Bilge Ceylan or Semih Kaplanoğlu film, “White as Snow” would still have turned out as this kind of film. I couldn’t possibly say, “My path is the same as theirs”; I will try to forge my own path.

Metin Erksan was my idol. For me, he ranks among the important directors not only of Turkish cinema but of world cinema too.

I feel closer to Reha Erdem’s cinema.

INFO

Selim Güneş shot one of the shots in his film inspired by a photograph by Joseph Koudelka, the Czech photographer born in 1938. In this scene we witness the gendarmes taking the father away from the wedding house. A second reference is made to Michelangelo’s painting “The Creation”.