‘A Season of Daphne’ wins best picture award in 9th Montreal Turkish Film Festival

Mert Şuşut - ISTANBUL

“A Season of Daphne,” directed by Mehmet Öztürk, won the award for best picture at the 9th Montreal Turkish Film Festival on May 21.  

The film depicts a love triangle between a girl and two brothers living in Hatay, a southern province bordering Syria which has been hosting a number of different communities for many years.  

The story of the film also sheds light on sociological crossroads in Turkey before the 1980 military coup.

The film features actress Hande Subaşı and actors Gökhan Alkan and Mert Öcal in the leading roles, and its script was written by Öztürk and Bedi Gümüşlü.  

Öztürk, who is living in France, told Hürriyet Daily News he prioritized beauty in the film. 

“Beauty is the base and criterion for all arts. We tried to make beauty the dominant theme in our film in all conditions. When you are directing a political film, it would be necessary to convey a straight point of view, not just beauty. Because political delusion smears beauty,” he said. 

Öztürk added that in his film he tried to show that everything could suddenly change in the Middle East.

“Colors, places, scores, dialogues, portraits and myths, all picked by us, were stylized for this purpose from the lens of the camera,” he added.