Turkish film through a ‘Global Lens’ in NY
NEW YORK - Hürriyet Daily News
‘Gişe Memuru’ will be presented as part of the annual collaboration between MOMA and the Global Film Initiative. The film can be seen until Jan 18 at the museum.
The Turkish movie “Gişe Memuru” (Toll Booth), directed by Tolga Karaçelik will be screened with English subtitles at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York between Jan. 13 and 18.The films presented as part of the annual collaboration between MoMA and the Global Film Initiative (GFI) make up the touring movie exhibition “Global Lens,” a project conceived to encourage filmmaking in countries with emerging film communities.
The selection of 10 programs, which include films developed with seed money from the GFI, represent a concise survey of contemporary filmmaking from areas where local economic realities make such expensive and technology-driven endeavors a challenge.
Accomplished, entertaining and thought-provoking, the films are deeply rooted in the social and political realities of the countries where their talented and resourceful creators live and set their stories.
In “Gişe Memuru,” the director sends the leading character Kenan (Serkan Ercan), a tollbooth clerk, to a remote highway, making his humdrum existence even more pronounced. With thousands of jobs being just variations on the assembly lines of the Industrial Revolution, Kenan’s job might top the list with its painfully boring repetitive nature and lack of breathing space.
Day in and day out, his job is to collect money from vehicles and raise the guard fence, letting cars and trucks continue along their route.
The routine of his work might have numbed him, but things are not that pleasant at home for Kenan either.
When he returns home after a long day’s work, he has to endure his sick father’s (played by Zafer Diper) endless ramblings about his good-for-nothing worthless son.
