DORMITORY
Nehir Tuna
Red Balloon GmbH, TN Yapım (TR, DE), fiction
A father discovers religion, his son pays the price.
Forced to leave the comfort of his middle-class lifestyle at his father’s behest, fourteen-year-old AHMET is sent to an all-boys religious dormitory where he must navigate familial expectations, his religious obligations, and the childhood to which he so desperately clings.
NEHIR TUNA / IMDB
NEHIR TUNA’s work combines social commentary and an original visual aesthetic, tackling stories on Turkey’s complex present-day issues, be it masculinity or conservatism. A Sundance Alumni, Tuna was selected to take part in 2019 Sundance Screenwriters Lab and 2020 Directors and Screenwriters Lab. He participated in the 2018 Nipkow Programme’s film residency program. He has written and directed seven short films, including THE SHOES, a prequel to his forthcoming feature YURT (DORMITORY). Tuna studied at Columbia University's Graduate Film Program and holds an MFA in directing from Rochester Institute of Technology. Tuna’s work focuses on stories about young people who are raised under oppression and the impact of those traumas on their lives later on. His second feature project in development, VIRGIN ISLAND, tells a story of a sexually oppressed young man’s hunt for his own manhood in the context of a wild natural world. He made short films in which he has undertaken different positions: director, screenwriter, editor, art director and producer. He won Calypso Award in Moondance Film Festival in 2012, Audience Award at Williamsburg International Film Festival in 2013 and Audience Award at !f Istanbul International Independent Film Festival in 2015. His last film The Shoes won the best short film award in Adana Golden Boll Film Festival in 2019.
Director’s statement:
As a child, I was sent to a religious dormitory for 5 years. I have this memory that I will never forget: I’m in the dormitory’s library. My head is leaned against the window. I feel the warmth of the radiator in my legs, and the coldness of the window on my forehead. My eyes are locked on the living room of our house that is 300 meters away, waiting for the lights to turn on. Waiting for my parents to come home. Then the lights go on and I watch them. Dad takes off his jacket and hangs it on the back of a chair, mom takes off her earrings. They watch tv, have dinner... I watch them live. I watch the most usual, boring things with longing. Mostly with a lump in my throat.
I try to bring my own personal experience of having lived in a religious Islamic dormitory to tell a story that transcends the macro political struggle between religiosity and secularism, conveying the isolation and pressure AHMET faces as he struggles to meet his family’s expectations and also belong somewhere.
Where are we at?
Total budget: 412.596,00 EUR
Financing in place: 352.596,00 EUR
Sales agent: /
Territories available: Worldwide, except Turkey, Germany, France
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