Cycle index

My Only Sunshine

Hayat var

dir. Reha Erdem / Turkey, Greece, null 2008 / 121’

subtitles: Polish and English

Panorama $9.99, 12 Lotus, Beeswax, Blue Beard, Breathless, Collectress, Ecce Momo!, Hooked, I am Not Your Friend + I Will Not Be Your Friend, Katalin Varga, Machan, My Only Sunshine, My Sweet Shirin, North, Nymph, Ordinary People, Palermo Shooting, Parque vía, Rachel Getting Married, Ricky, Schottentor, Seraphine, Stella, The Northern Land, The Other One, The Rat Herb, The Visitor, The White Ribbon, Two Lines, Under the Tree, Winter Silence Section index

Cast

Elit İşcan, Erdal Beşikçioğlu, Levend Yılmaz, Banu Fotocan, Handan Karaadam, Nebil Sayın, Erhan Tekin, Metin Yıldırım, Önder Açıkbaş, Aynur Tokluoğlu, İsmail Başöz, Canbert Yerguz, Kaan Mestut, Halim Ercan

Film description

The Bosporus is a symbolic line between Europe and Asia. It also divides the life and world of the fourteen-year-old Hayat. On one shore, there is the girl's school and Istanbul, colourful and admirable with its glimmering lights in the evening, when seen from far away, but not at all similar to a picturesque metropolis when watched closely. On the other shore - there is her home, which offers no safety or shelter. Both these worlds are equally unfriendly and uncompromising, dominated by men and men's needs. Hayat's life passes between the sick bed-ridden grandfather and the father who smuggles alcohol and prostitutes onto ships in the Strait. Suspended between the two spaces, Hayat lives in her own world, she feels secure on water, onboard of a little boat with which her father takes her across Bosporus to school every day. Reha Erdem presents the outskirts of the Turkish capital city, places which are not shown by travel agencies, which are unknown to tourists. He presents the emotions people would rather hide. There is no carefree childhood here; it is hard and painful to cross borders when there is no support. And yet Hayat has the courage to live on hope. After all, her name means life in Turkish.

Monika Kocbuch