WHAT A PAIR

MY AUNT (TEYZEM), 1986
Turkiye | Betacam, Colour, 101’ | Turkish
Director: Halit Refiğ
Cast: Müjde Ar, Haldun Ergüvenç, Yaşar Alptekin, Tomris Oğuzalp, Serra Yılmaz

DON’T LET THEM SHOOT THE KITE (UÇURTMAYI VURMASINLAR), 1989
Turkiye | 35mm, Colour, 100’ | Turkish
Director: Tunç Başaran
Cast: Nur Sürer, Füsun Demiral, Ozan Bilen, Güzin Özipek, Meral Çetinkaya

Telling a story from a child’s perspective is a method that directors frequently use. If cinema is a shadow-show screen, it has to talk about the meaninglessness of the real world governed by the rules laid down by grown-ups. Who can do this better than children? Two of the most beloved tear-jerkers of our cinema, My Aunt and Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite use that same method. The title character of My Aunt, adapted by Halit Refiğ from a screenplay by Ümit Ünal, is Üftade played by Müjde Ar, but the story is told by her nephew Umur. Only her nephew tries to understand Üftade who is left alone by her family and immediate environment to go mad. The oppression and abuse by her retired sergeant stepfather has turned her life into a prison, but nobody believes her. It’s not for nothing that only Umur sees the ghost of her stepfather wandering in her room. Upon their first meeting, his aunt invites him not only into a play world, but also to an alliance against the authority in the house. In Tunç Başaran’s Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite, the narrator is an adult, but the main character is a child. This time the prison is not symbolic. The film takes place in a women’s ward. The closest friend of five-year-old Barış, who lives with his mother in prison, is political convict İnci. The narrative of the film is based on İnci’s recollection of her memories with Barış following her release, but the story focuses on the child’s perception. The naïveté of Bariş when he asks why a kite–drawn with chalk on the courtyard of the prison–doesn’t fly reveals the absurdity of the prison authority who tries to shoot a kite in the sky. The other factor which brings these two films closer is that both Umur and Barış are children of the coup era. My Aunt, which takes place immediately after March 12, reflects the sentiment and despair of the time it was filmed in (1986) more than the time its story takes place. When Umur looks back in time, he carries the sadness of not being able to save his aunt. That’s why the film is pessimistic. Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite is a “September 12 film”. It was shot during the time when martial law was in effect. Maybe that’s why Başaran’s film, despite all its sorrow, is hopeful of the future. Engin Ertan