Zuhal is the first feature by Turkish film-maker Nazlı Elif Durlu. Having made three short films, Trust Me (2009), Later (2012) and The Horse and the Nightingale (2013), this is her first longer project.
Zuhal is about a lawyer of the same name living alone in Istanbul. Although her life is well ordered, she is “suddenly disturbed by the meowing of a cat, which she keeps hearing. Unable to find where it’s coming from, Zuhal starts talking to – and even visiting – her neighbours for the first time in years, trying to find the cat. When Zuhal realizes she is the only person who has heard this meowing and that her neighbours are starting to see her as “that crazy cat-woman”, she decides she must stop looking, to protect her reputation as “hard working” and “well educated”. But then, unexpectedly, things change…”
The director explores the issue of loneliness in the modern world and the importance we attach to other people’s opinion. Nazlı Elif Durlu wonders whether, in the same situation, “I would keep looking, or would I just ignore the meow for fear of being thought of as crazy?”
Nazlı Elif Durlu took part in the development and co-production workshop during the Meetings on the Bridge festival in Istanbul. Her project also benefited from the Goethe Institute’s First Films First programme, with funding from the Mediterranean Film Institute and the Film Independent programme, Global Media Makers.
Her films have received several awards :
At the Trieste festival When East Meets West, at the Agora Crossroads in Thessaloniki and during the 15th Istanbul Meetings.
The film is produced by the German company Achtung Panda! and the Turkish companies TN Yapim, Karaçelik Film and Yumurta Yapim Sanat. The finance comes from the Turkish-German Co-production Development Fund.
Sources :
https://cineuropa.org
https://film.iksv.org
http://firstfilmsfirst.com
https://www.imdb.com
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