Güneşe Yolculuk
Journey to the Sun
Mehmet, a recent arrival to the teeming city, is fortunate. He has a
shared room, a possible girlfriend, and a neat job as a diviner for Istanbul’s municipal water system. He meets Berzan, a
street music vendor familiar with the metropolis, and his moral education begins. Berzan is a Kurd, harassed by the authorities,
and Mehmet’s friendship with him combined with his own “dark skin” puts Mehmet at extreme risk. Yeşim Ustaoğlu, an architect
turned filmmaker, takes her characters on a journey east out of Istanbul into a ravishing and war-ravaged landscape close
to the Iraqi border. Hotly debated when first released in Turkey, Journey to the Sun may be a story of sanctioned persecution,
but it is also the chronicle of a remarkable friendship as well as a pilgrimage into the unknown. (Film Society of Lincoln
Center) Yeşim Ustaoğlu’s sophomore feature Journey to the Sun received the Blue Angel Award at the Berlin International Film
Festival in 1999.
Director's Biography
YEŞIM USTAOĞLU, born in 1960, is an award-winning director
from Çaykara, Turkey. She directed several shorts before making her feature film debut with The Trace in 1994. She received
international recognition for her 1999 film Journey to the Sun, winning several international awards. // Films (selection):
İz (The Trace, 1994), Güneşe Yolculuk (Journey to the Sun, 1999), Bulutlari Beklerken (Waiting for the Clouds, 2004), Pandora’nin
Kutusu (Pandora’s Box, 2008; CE’09), Araf (Araf – Somewhere in Between, 2012; CE’13), Tereddüt (Clair Obscur, 2016)
Spotlight 2017
Yeşim
Ustaoğlu
Turkey / Germany
/ Netherlands 1999
Color
104 minutes
OV with English subtitles
Screenplay
Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Cinematography
Reyhan Yılmaz
Editing Nicolas
Gaster
Sound/Sounddesign Svetolik Mica Zajs, Christian
Gotz, Frederic Helm, Bruno Tarriére
Music Vlatko
Stefanovski
With Nevruz Baz, Nazmi Kırık, Mizgin
Kapazan, Ara Güler, Berceste Akgün, Kazım Ekinci, Nigar Aktar Şirvan
Producer(s) Behrooz Hashemian (Silkroad Production, FR), İstisnai Filmler ve Reklamlar
(TR), Medias Res Berlin Film- und Fernsehproduktion (DE), Filmcompany Amsterdam (NL)
Production
Silkroad Production 8 rue Myrha 75018 Paris France info@silkroadproduction.com www.silkroadproduction.com
Weltpremiere / World Premiere
Berlin International Film Festival 1999
Berlin International Film Festival 1999