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Shot in authentic locations and based on real characters and events, Asli Özge’s new film offers a unique and intimate look at the life of an elderly man in the bustling city of Istanbul exploring not only the implications of gentrification but also the complexities of a father-daughter relationship.
Faruk, a man in his 90s, becomes the central character of his daughter’s film about the impending demolition of his block of flats. Simultaneously, Faruk attends building management meetings, hoping to delay the demolition process of the building he has been living in for decades. Gradually reality and fiction intertwine and the line between the two starts to blur.
Istanbul-born screenwriter-director Asli Özge graduated in 1999 from the Film and Television Academy of the University of Marmara in Istanbul. In 2000, she moved to Berlin, where she co-founded her own production company with fellow filmmaker Emre Erkmen. Özge’s latest film, Faruk, premiered in the Panorama section of Berlinale, where it also won the prize of the FIPRESCI jury. Combining elements of documentary and fiction, the film depicts the life of Özge’s elderly father in Istanbul and the inexorable transformation of the city due to gentrification.