I
first met Asli Ozge when we both showed our debut features at the Istanbul Film
Festival in 2003. Since then Ozge has become one of Turkish cinema’s brightest
young stars. Her award-winning film Koprudekiler (Men on the Bridge) is currently playing MoMA, after an intensely successful run on the international
festival circuit and distribution around the world. It’s a remarkable
hybrid of documentary and narrative, following the lives of several men who
work on a bridge across the Bosphorus in Istanbul. We seem them both
in their work and in their private lives – creating an intoxicatingly
intimate atmosphere that nevertheless has broader resonances. Because,
ultimately, we’re watching not just three men’s lives on one bridge, but an entire nation’s in-between existence -- one perched between East and West. Ozge was
in town recently, and I sat down with her to discuss her new film, her unique method of working, and the
Turkish film landscape in general.
