Turkish director launches a ‘Balkan project’

SARAJEVO - Anadolu Agency

Turkish director Yeşim Ustaoğlu attends the festival with her film ‘Araf.’ Her new project will be with producers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, she says. AA photo

Turkish director Yeşim Ustaoğlu was one of the guests at the 19th Sarajevo Film Festival where her latest movie “Araf” (Somewhere in Between) was screened.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Ustaoğlu said that this movie was already screened internationally, and well received by the audience.

It is a story about the world that is changing quickly and people who are trying to understand and follow these changes.

The director announced that her new project will be with producers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, but was not ready to give more details “and the only reason is not to jinx the entire project.”

“We are in the middle of making financial construction for the project, and I am still not sure what will happen in the end. It is a project that concerns the entire region of the Balkans, including Turkey. I am more than happy to have a chance to work with artists from Bosnia,” she said.

‘Everyone is unique’

Speaking about the times she began working, and by way of advice for young directors and artists, she said that it was not enough only to watch a lot of movies.

“Huge influence for my work is coming from literature and poetry. But also politics. And life more than anything. After all that you read, feel, taste, it all leaves some marks on a person. Everyone is unique. There are many things we cannot see. But we have to try to see, and to see what others cannot see. To feel it. That is art,” Ustaoğlu said.

Sarajevo film festival will continue until Aug. 24.