Ara (film)
Encyclopedia
Ara is a Turkish
2007 feature-length
drama film
directed by Ümit Ünal
, starring Erdem Akakçe, Betül Çobanoğlu, Serhat Tutumluer
, and Selen Uçer, all originally stage actors.
The film's plot spans a decade and evolves around the relations of two middle class
, urban
couples, Veli and Selda, Veli's business partner Ender and Gül. Selda is romantically and sexually
involved with Ender, while Gül and Veli are also in an extramarital relationship
. The film examines Turkey's financial
and cultural
turmoils of the past 20 years through these four middle-class people who search for their own places and stances in society
, and through their romantic, friendly and treacherous relations.
The film is set in a single apartment
, however, because the plot spans a decade, and the apartment is used as a set for music video
s, commercials
or TV serials
, those images seep into the film's image
ry while the decoration of the house continuously changes throughout. The film was shot completely digitally
in an 80 square meter (861 square feet) flat at the Kuledibi neighbourhood in Beyoğlu
, Istanbul
. The film's title "Ara" means "between", "space
", "distance
" in Turkish
, and it is a reference to the main characters' "in between-ness" in society and their own relationships.
s to shoot commercials, movies
, TV series and music videos. When the homes of her friends Ender, Veli, and Selda, are flooded, they also stay in her flat. The film follows these four friends living in this house from 1998 until 2008.
, but preferred to make Ara instead for budgetary
reasons. Ünal constructed the script
especially for two actors, who both turned the offer down. The script was completed in the summer of 2006.
Ünal first came up with the idea of making a film on relations at a single setting, in one house, after moving out from his home where he lived with his ex-wife
. According to Ünal, the script has autobiographical elements, "but rather the autobiography of a generation that is in its 40s now." Ünal also was inspired by English
playwright
Harold Pinter
's 1978 play
Betrayal
that deals with an affair
that entangles a married
couple. The Ender character corresponds to the director Ümit Ünal, if he had studied Economics
, instead of Fine Arts.
, and both shooting and editing
were completed in only 13 days, due to the being done on a daily basis as the shooting went on (a standard feature film usually takes from one month up to a year for the editing to be completed).
in Turkey, however audience
numbers were quite low compared to blockbuster
s (9,332 in 13 weeks as opposed to 102,900 by The Bank Job
in 17 weeks). The film was released in 18 theaters
, most of them art house cinemas.
At the 2008 Istanbul International Film Festival
, Ara received the Special Prize of the Jury in the National Competition and Serhat Tutumluer won the Best Actor Award.
. Ümit Ünal sent a public letter to the festival director Engin Yiğitgil protesting that Ara was eliminated as contender by a pre-jury
whose members were not revealed, and without a rationale. Ünal added that he will not have any of his future films screened at Antalya as long as the current festival structure
is maintained. Ünal also turned to the Turkish film
organisations Scriptwriters' Association and Film Works Owners' Association. On September 30, 2007, another director, Ali Özgentürk
, in support of Ünal, accused the festival as being undemocratic and that Golden Orange "has been using Turkish cinema as an extra
for the last few years. Directors Engin Ayça, whose Suna, Selma Köksal, whose Fikret Bey, and Mehmet Eryılmaz, whose A Fairground Attraction were not nominated, also protest
ed and accused the festival for not showing the necessary attention to Turkish cinema. The Golden Orange Film Festival administration did not reveal the reasons for Ara not being included in its competition, how many films applied to the competition of how many were eliminated.
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
2007 feature-length
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Ümit Ünal
Ümit Ünal
Ümit Ünal is a film director, screenwriter and author. Born in 1965 in Turkey, he is the scriptwriter for eight Turkish feature films including Teyzem , Hayallerim, Askim ve Sen . He has published one book of stories and two novels. He has been working as a TV commercials director since 1996...
, starring Erdem Akakçe, Betül Çobanoğlu, Serhat Tutumluer
Serhat Tutumluer
-Biography:Serhat Tutumluer began studying sociology at Istanbul University but later went to Ankara State Conservatory where he graduated in theatre. Between 1995 and 1997, he worked at the Ankara State Theatre. He won the Best Actor Award at the 27th Istanbul Film Festival for his performance in...
, and Selen Uçer, all originally stage actors.
The film's plot spans a decade and evolves around the relations of two middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
, urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
couples, Veli and Selda, Veli's business partner Ender and Gül. Selda is romantically and sexually
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
involved with Ender, while Gül and Veli are also in an extramarital relationship
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
. The film examines Turkey's financial
Economic history of Turkey
The economic history of the Republic of Turkey has distinct sections which can be classified between World War I to end of World War II, post 1950, reforms under Özal and early 1990s...
and cultural
Culture of Turkey
The culture of Turkey combines a largely diverse and heterogeneous set of elements that are derived from the Ottoman, European, Middle Eastern and Central Asian traditions...
turmoils of the past 20 years through these four middle-class people who search for their own places and stances in society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
, and through their romantic, friendly and treacherous relations.
The film is set in a single apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
, however, because the plot spans a decade, and the apartment is used as a set for music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s, commercials
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
or TV serials
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
, those images seep into the film's image
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
ry while the decoration of the house continuously changes throughout. The film was shot completely digitally
Digital cinematography
Digital cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital images, rather than on film. Digital capture may occur on video tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common...
in an 80 square meter (861 square feet) flat at the Kuledibi neighbourhood in Beyoğlu
Beyoglu
Beyoğlu is a district located on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey, separated from the old city by the Golden Horn...
, Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. The film's title "Ara" means "between", "space
Space
Space is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum...
", "distance
Distance
Distance is a numerical description of how far apart objects are. In physics or everyday discussion, distance may refer to a physical length, or an estimation based on other criteria . In mathematics, a distance function or metric is a generalization of the concept of physical distance...
" in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, and it is a reference to the main characters' "in between-ness" in society and their own relationships.
Plot
Ara tells the story of two couples over a period of about 10 years. The men are close friends, and so are their partners, thanks to them. One of the women, Gül, is half French half Turkish living in Istanbul. She rents her house to film crewFilm crew
Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew positions.A film crew is a group of people hired by a production company for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. Crew are distinguished from cast, the Actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for...
s to shoot commercials, movies
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, TV series and music videos. When the homes of her friends Ender, Veli, and Selda, are flooded, they also stay in her flat. The film follows these four friends living in this house from 1998 until 2008.
Script
Writer-director Ümit Ünal was expected to shoot Sultan Mutfakta after he completed Istanbul TalesIstanbul Tales
Istanbul Tales is a 2005 Turkish drama-anthology film, directed by Selim Demirdelen, Kudret Sabancı, Ümit Ünal, Yücel Yolcu and Ömür Atay, which tells 5 interconnected stories set in modern day Istanbul based on the fairytales Snow White, Cinderella, Pied Piper, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red...
, but preferred to make Ara instead for budgetary
Film budgeting
Film budgeting refers to the process by which a line producer, unit production manager or filmmaker prepares a budget for a film production. This document, which could be over 150 pages long, is used to secure financing for the film and lead to pre-production and production of the film. Multiple...
reasons. Ünal constructed the script
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
especially for two actors, who both turned the offer down. The script was completed in the summer of 2006.
Ünal first came up with the idea of making a film on relations at a single setting, in one house, after moving out from his home where he lived with his ex-wife
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
. According to Ünal, the script has autobiographical elements, "but rather the autobiography of a generation that is in its 40s now." Ünal also was inspired by English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
's 1978 play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
Betrayal
Betrayal (play)
Betrayal is a play written by Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of the English playwright's major dramatic works, it features his characteristically economical dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-upmanship,...
that deals with an affair
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
that entangles a married
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
couple. The Ender character corresponds to the director Ümit Ünal, if he had studied Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, instead of Fine Arts.
Shooting and editing
Shooting began on May 10, 20072007 in film
This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...
, and both shooting and editing
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
were completed in only 13 days, due to the being done on a daily basis as the shooting went on (a standard feature film usually takes from one month up to a year for the editing to be completed).
Reception
Ara was generally well received by criticsFilm criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
in Turkey, however audience
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
numbers were quite low compared to blockbuster
Blockbuster (entertainment)
Blockbuster, as applied to film or theatre, denotes a very popular or successful production. The entertainment industry use was originally theatrical slang referring to a particularly successful play but is now used primarily by the film industry...
s (9,332 in 13 weeks as opposed to 102,900 by The Bank Job
The Bank Job
The Bank Job is a 2008 British crime film written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, directed by Roger Donaldson, and starring Jason Statham, based on the 1971 Baker Street robbery in central London, from which the money and valuables stolen were never recovered...
in 17 weeks). The film was released in 18 theaters
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
, most of them art house cinemas.
At the 2008 Istanbul International Film Festival
Istanbul International Film Festival
The Istanbul International Film Festival is the first and oldest international film festival in Turkey, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts , a non-profit organisation. It is held every year in April in movie theaters in Istanbul, Turkey...
, Ara received the Special Prize of the Jury in the National Competition and Serhat Tutumluer won the Best Actor Award.
Controversy
A controversy arose when Ara was not selected to compete at the 44th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival2007 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
The 44th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival was held from October 19 to 28 2007 in Antalya, Turkey. Awards were presented in the 44th Antalya Golden Orange Festival in 20 categories of three competition divisions and in the 3rd Eurasia Film Festival in 4 categories...
. Ümit Ünal sent a public letter to the festival director Engin Yiğitgil protesting that Ara was eliminated as contender by a pre-jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
whose members were not revealed, and without a rationale. Ünal added that he will not have any of his future films screened at Antalya as long as the current festival structure
Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
The Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival is a film festival, held annually since 1963 in Antalya, is the most important national film festival in Turkey...
is maintained. Ünal also turned to the Turkish film
Cinema of Turkey
Turkish cinema is an important part of Turkish culture, and has flourished over the years, delivering entertainment to audiences in Turkey, expatriates across Europe, and in rare cases, the USA....
organisations Scriptwriters' Association and Film Works Owners' Association. On September 30, 2007, another director, Ali Özgentürk
Ali Özgentürk
Ali Özgentürk is a renowned Turkish film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was born in 1947 in Adana, Turkey. After studying philosophy and sociology at Istanbul University, he became involved in theater, as an actor, director, and playwright. He founded Istanbul's first street theater...
, in support of Ünal, accused the festival as being undemocratic and that Golden Orange "has been using Turkish cinema as an extra
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
for the last few years. Directors Engin Ayça, whose Suna, Selma Köksal, whose Fikret Bey, and Mehmet Eryılmaz, whose A Fairground Attraction were not nominated, also protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
ed and accused the festival for not showing the necessary attention to Turkish cinema. The Golden Orange Film Festival administration did not reveal the reasons for Ara not being included in its competition, how many films applied to the competition of how many were eliminated.