– BERLINALE 2026: Ilker Çatak reconstructs Turkey to dissect the ambivalent facets of art and life, political oppression, education and couples’ relationships
Özgü Namal and Tansu Biçer in Yellow Letters
“Consider your position carefully.” With Yellow Letters [+see also:
trailer
film profile], presented in competition at the 76th Berlinale, German filmmaker of Turkish origin Ilker Çatak (propelled to prominence with his previous film The Teachers’ Lounge [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: İlker Çatak
interview: Leonie Benesch
film profile], notably nominated for the 2024 Academy Award for Best International Feature) delivers an uncompromising portrait of the material consequences of state arbitrariness and violence against dissenting voices.
However, one thing concealing another, it is above all a story of a couple that the director methodically observes, the Samuel Beckett-esque waiting and absurdity caused by political oppression masking an abrasive, feminist deconstruction à la Elfriede Jelinek. But let us not be mistaken, although it is underpinned by a solid body of intellectual and theatrical references (the protagonists’ natural environment), the film takes great care to remain very accessible to the general public, concocting a surprising mix of soap opera and Shakespeare, American-style mainstream cinema (centred on Turkish-style characters) and human beings subjected to the scrutiny of underlying conflicts in the style of Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
Act 1, Ankara: in less than 48 hours, the life of the couple formed by star actress Derya (Özgü Namal) and academic and playwright Aziz (Tansu Biçer) is turned upside down when Aziz is suspended along with his progressive colleagues, and Derya (who is not afraid to speak her mind) is unceremoniously kicked out of her theatre company. Under police and financial pressure, the couple, united and determined to secure the future of their teenage daughter Ezgi (Leyla Smyrna Cabas), decide to move to Istanbul, where Aziz’s mother takes them in while they await the trial of the academics contesting their dismissal, set for seven months later.
Act 2: our two fallen artists try to adapt to their new life (“it’s not the end of the world”), which is the opposite of what they were used to. Aziz accompanies his brother-in-law (whose opinions he previously did not share) to the mosque and becomes a night taxi driver. Derya tries to find a job as an actress and painfully begins to reassess the situation. Ezgi goes through a classic teenage crisis that her parents try to cushion as best they can, each in their own way. Then Aziz writes a political play called Yellow Letters and the couple work together again, rehearsing in a friend’s small theatre. Everything seems to be back on track, even though the trial is approaching; but in reality, nothing will ever be the same again…
“I want to know who I am.” Under the guise of a (very real) denunciation of political authoritarianism and the persecution of opponents carried out for years by the Turkish government under the pretext of terrorism, the film explores the microscopic, human, emotional reactions to a crisis situation (a form of confinement). Gradually deconstructing idealism and realism beyond stereotypes, Ilker Çatak (who wrote the screenplay with Ayda Meriem Çatak and Enis Köstepen) has created a very well-paced work (propelled in particular by a hyper-dynamic opening) with multiple hidden ambitions, whose didacticism is only apparent and which takes full advantage of the talent of its two main actors.
Yellow Letters was produced by if… Productions Film (Germany) and co-produced by Haut et Court (France) and Liman Film (Turkey). International sales are handled by Be For Films.
(Translated from French)
