Section: Spectrum

Kar ve Ayı

SNOW AND THE BEAR

Selcen Ergun
DE/TR/RS, 2022, 93 Min

In a small, remote village in the hinterlands of the Black Sea coast, winter has always been harsh; this year however it is seemingly endless. Snowfall cuts the place off from the rest of the world, the bears are said to have woken early from hibernation. A climate of fear, and in the middle of it all there is Aslı, a nurse sent here on a compulsory year’s service. When a man disappears without a trace she gets caught up in the tide the events, playing both mediator and suspect.

When Hasan is suddenly gone, it is initially thought that he has been eaten by a bear. Then, however newcomer Samet comes under suspicion, a hunt begins and the emotional and social equilibrium threatens to come undone. Aslı, who has just arrived from the city, finds herself in a village community in which, well-intentioned as everyone would appear to be, they seem to be hiding a secret. She struggles to cope with the general insecurity in the village, as well as its hidden hierarchies. Is she a player or a character in this game of power, and who stands to profit anyway? With this, her feature film debut, Selcen Ergun succeeds in creating a calmly staged, enigmatic portrait of the interpersonal mechanisms of fear and power in a society in which everyone feels increasingly threatened. A repressive system that sustains itself even in the absence of a mastermind behind the scenes and a community that is kept under control with threats and latent violence in this anti-fairy tale full of magical imagery, captured by Franco-Belgian cinematographer Florent Herry, who has also served as director of photography in the films of Reha Erdem.

Text: Bernd Buder
English: Peter Rickerby

Weltspiegel Saal 2: original version with English subtitles.

 

Drehbuch
Selcen Ergun, Yeşim Aslan
Kamera
Florent Herry
Ton
Cenker Kökten
Schnitt
Çiçek Kahraman
Ausstattung
Osman Özcan
Musik
Erdem Helvacıoğlu
Darsteller
Merve Dizdar, Saygın Soysal, Asiye Dinçsoy, Erkan Bektaş
Produzent
Nefes Polat (Nefes' Films), Selcen Ergun (Albino Zebra Film)
Co-Produktion
Michael Eckelt (Riva Filmproduktion GmbH) Miloš Ivanović, Andrijana Sofranić Šućur (Set Sail Films), TRT, Ezgi Mola, Florent Herry (Intercam Upgrade), Tolga Yolcu (Boş İşler Yapım), Hasan Ormanlar, Nail Aydın (Set Pozitif Filmcilik)
Selcen Ergun

Selcen Ergun - Selcen Ergun is a director and screenwriter from Turkey. Sheobtained her MA in Screenwriting and Directing at IstanbulBilgi University, after studying Industrial Design and VisualCulture at METU and is a Berlinale Talents alumna. Selcenbegan her career as an assistant director, working in manynational and international productions. Her short films'Confrontation' and 'A Sunny Day' have been selected byseveral international film festivals (including Munich, LUCASFrankfurt, Brussels, Los Angeles, !f İstanbul, Ankara, AdanaGolden Boll) and awarded prizes. She was selected for the Medienboard NipkowArtist-in-Residency in 2019. 'Snow and the Bear' is her debut feature film; a Turkish, German,Serbian co-production supported by Eurimages.

Movies
A SUNNY DAY (Short) 2012
CONFRONTATION (Short) 2008

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