Turkish film big winner in Montreal

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Director İsmail Güneş’s film ‘Where the Fire Burns’ is the story of a father and daughter on a journey. The film won two awards at the Montral Film Festival.

Turkish director Ismail Güneş’s film “Ateşin Düştüğü Yer” (Where the Fire Burns) won the Grand prix des Americas, the top prize, at the 36th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival. The film also won the International Federation of Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI).

The festival closed Sept. 2 with the awards ceremony and the screening of the French film “Happiness Never Comes Alone,” which stars Sophie Marceau and Gad Elmaleh.

“Where the Fire Burns” is a dark drama about a woman, Ayşe, who unexpectedly gets sick are is urgently taken by her family for an operation. During the operation, it is discovered that the girl is fourteen weeks pregnant. After the successful operation, Ayşe does not tell her family who the father of her baby is. The family, who previously tried to keep Ayşe alive, then turns to trying to ‘‘kill” her. Her father, Osman, is charged with the task of killing his daughter, and he then takes Ayşe on a trip.

A newspaper article

Güneş shot the film after reading a newspaper article in 2003, according to daily Hürriyet. “I tried to understand the feeling of the father. How can a father treat his child like an enemy because of incorrect behavior, and how can he kill her barbarously? I changed the story to understand and tell the story better, and I came up with the idea of sending them on a journey together,” he said.