Tarık Ötgen
ASSUMPTION
GUEST PROJECT / In partnership with TRT Punto
Tayfun, haunted by the possibility that he unintentionally killed a child at a wedding where he fired his gun in celebration, shows up at the victim’s family’s door in search of redemption.
SYNOPSIS
A stranger arrives at the Bestil family’s house. A kid from this household was accidentally killed by a falling bullet during a wedding celebration nine months ago. That night, many guests fired their guns, making it impossible to trace who killed the boy. The investigation yielded no results. The man at the door is Tayfun, one of the wedding guests. An earthquake hit his hometown four months earlier, leaving him the only survivor of his family. After all he had lost, he began to question why God let him live and took everyone else. He finds no other way but to face his possible role in the kid’s death. When Tayfun arrives, the family is still grieving. Some find relief in faith, while others accept the pain as a burden. Tayfun’s tragedy evokes empathy, but his claim of escaping the rubble on his own makes them question his story. When Tayfun voices his doubts about the incident, tension rises. But Gülnur, the mother, recognizes his suffering and gives him space to be heard. The family begins to revisit that day and leads them, maybe for the first time, to face their negligence. In search of clarity, they phone witnesses. Some said the child was filming the wedding with a mobile phone. But mysteriously, the phone was never found, erasing the key piece that could bring answers. The testimonies add new layers of ambiguity. Uncertainty peaks, and Tayfun makes a shocking offer: if anyone sees him as guilty, he will take his own life, regardless of the truth. As he asks for absolute redemption, some family members are unsure of his intentions, while others tend to blame him. Ilhami, the father, exhausted by the tension, tells Tayfun to leave. Tayfun, for the last time, asks for the family’s consent to no longer carry the guilt. The family remains hesitant, offering him no response. As Tayfun reluctantly moves toward the door, a violent tremor strikes. The house collapses, burying everyone under the rubble. Eventually, Tayfun finds a way out of the rubble on his own.
DIRECTOR
Tarık Ötgen
PRODUCERS
İpek Erden, Bilal Peltek
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Vayka Film
COUNTRY
Turkey
Tarık Ötgen
Tarık Ötgen was born in Istanbul. He has been involved in various radio and television programs since childhood. Passionate about writing and travel, he has visited over 30 countries. His creative work spans multiple forms, especially screenplays, short stories, and traditional poetry. After working as a writer and director on various television projects and documentaries, he is currently developing his first feature film based on his original screenplay ‘Assumption’.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Assumption is a story in which grief changes hands. The grief of a family, shaped by cultural beliefs and social norms, is replaced by the search of a man who rejects all normative frameworks and seeks to understand the events through his own humanity. I structure the film’s dramatic arc around 3 narrative elements: Central to the story is Tayfun’s visit to the family, who lost their kid Can. Cellphone videos Can recorded during the wedding, revealing events in fragmented clips. (4 in total) Split-screen calls through which the family engages with various accounts of the incident. (5 in total) The story centers on a physical death that leads to a metaphysical birth, while also exploring the shifting ground of collective assumptions. For the family, fate offers comfort; for Tayfun, it becomes a barrier to understanding what truly happened. The film questions the polarizing nature of concepts such as religion, the state, law, and family, rooted in our deepest human instincts.
Ipek Erden
İpek Erden studied Business Management in Koç University and London School of Economics. After starting a career in finance working in one of the acknowledged firms, Deloitte, as an auditor, she stepped into the film industry in 2010. Since then, she has worked in various roles in many major productions, both local and international, such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), The Two Faces of January (2014) Ali and Nino (2016), Never Leave Me (2017) and digital platform series Hakan Muhafız (2018-2020) and Aşk 101 (2020-2021). She started producing in 2017, focusing on short films. In the same year, she undertook the task of international communication and coordination of the Antalya Film Festival. Ipek founded her production company Vayka Film in 2018, focusing on both service production and developing various types of projects including feature films, documentaries and series. In 2019, she founded the independent theater group Tiyatro Motus, and produced her first theater play The Good God of Manhattan which premiered in Istanbul Theater Festival. As a producer, she is selected to the Sarajevo Talents programme 2020 and EAVE Producers Workshop 2023. She is a member of the European Film Academy. Ipek took on the line production for the feature film Aftersun (2022), filmed in Turkey. The film has premiered in the competition of Semaine de la Critique - Cannes Film Festival, winning the French Jury Prize. Vayka Film’s first feature film, A Guide to Living for the Dead, which was selected to the Frontières Platform as part of Marché du Film 2022 – Cannes Film Festival, premiered in Istanbul Film Festival in 2023. Her most recent work, Nothing In Its Place, which has received the World Cinema Fund and Jeonju Cinema Project award from Jeonju Film Festival has internationally premiered in Karlovy Vary Film Festival and locally in Adana Film Festival where it has won the Best Director, Best Art Director, and Special Jury Award.
Bilal Peltek
He took his first step into cinema during his high school years by directing two short films. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at Istanbul University, he began working with a production group that creates contents both in Turkey and abroad. In 2019, he participated in the Yapimlab Training Program. He is currently based in Istanbul, continuing his works as a producer at Atetot Film, of which he is a co-founder.
PRODUCER’S STATEMENT
Tarık Ötgen is a screenwriter and director I’ve been following since his short films. He stands out with an approach that embraces storytelling through diverse styles and opens space for new narratives. With his new project, Assumption, he explores the dynamics between the individual and society in a simple yet multilayered way. In this story, which questions the notion of truth, each character is not only an individual but also a reflection of a broader ideological framework. Assumption is a journey of perspective set in a single location. We are in the development and financing stage, aiming to strengthen the script. We plan to shoot in 2027. Until then, we aim to secure financing and build an international co-production. Assumption received the Co-Production Award at 12 Punto, with TRT (national TV) joining as co-producer. We also applied for the Ministry of Culture’s First Feature Support and are seeking international co-producers.
Production company profile
Vayka Film was founded in 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey, by İpek Erden who has been actively working in the film industry since 2010. With the aim of producing international works of high quality, Vayka Film is an independent production company, operating in different levels of production including producing, co-producing, and providing production services in Turkey.
Where are we at?
TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET
650.000 €
FINANCES PENDING
368.936 €
FINANCING IN PLACE
281.064 €
Production timeline
2024-2026
Development
SEPTEMBER 2026
Preparation
OCTOBER 2026
Production
DECEMBER 2026 - AUGUST 2027
Post-production