Director wins award for best screenplay

PARIS - Doğan News Agency

Turkish director Nur Dolay, currently living in France, received the best environment film screenplay award for her film “Orkinos” (Tuna Fish) at the Monaco Angel Film Festival.

Speaking to Anatolia news agency, Dolay said she dedicated the award to Greenpeace for their efforts to create a healthier and better world.

She said documents given by Greenpeace representatives helped her a lot during the writing of the script and added that it was through these documents that she learned about the unauthorized and illegal hunt for tuna fish.

The movie itself takes place in a fishing village. Two young men fall in love with the same girl, one of whom is the son of a big fishing company and the other, a simple villager working as an underwater diver. The film is a triangular love story set to the backdrop of a major environmental conflict concerning the whole Mediterranean basin.

It was fitting the award be presented in Monaco, as the prince is also concerned with issues of conservation and the necessity of protecting the seas from overfishing, Dolay said. The film also criticizes the culture of consumerism in society.

Luc Besson was the film’s director of photography while Melissa Papel was in the lead role.
Dolay was born in Turkey. She studied sociology and political science at Wellesley College in the United States, human resources at the Sorbonne University in Paris and communication at the French Press Institute. She worked as a journalist during 30 years in French media for Le Monde Diplomatique, Courrier International, Afrique-Asie, Radio France International, Thalassa on France 3 TV, as well as for the Turkish press.

She has traveled all over the world and written books on Latin America and the Caucasus. She has made a dozen documentary films about geopolitical issues and marine subjects, and a feature film, SMYRN-OF, which was released in Turkey during 2010.

Dolay plans to make a movie on other environmental issues with her own film company, Orkinos, which was established in 2008.