ZUHAL now in post-production
In post-production April 2020
ZUHAL by Nazli Elif Durlu, producer: EAVE graduate Anna Maria Aslanoglu, co-produced by EAVE graduate Jamila Wenske is in post-production. The titular Zuhal, a 38-year-old lawyer, lives alone in her Istanbul apartment. Her well-organised routine is suddenly disturbed by a cat’s meow, which she hears repeatedly. Unable to find the source of the sound, for the first time in years, Zuhal will start talking to and visiting her neighbours, aiming to locate the cat she has been hearing for days. When Zuhal realises that she is the only one to have noticed any meowing and that she is slowly being seen by the others as the lonely “crazy cat-lady”, she decides to call a halt to her investigation
in order to protect her reputation as a ”hard-working” and “well-educated” woman. But then, unexpectedly, things change...
ZUHAL was developed via the Meetings on the Bridge Development Workshop and Co-production Market, the Goethe-Institut’s First Films First initiative, the Mediterranean Film Institute and the Global Media Makers of Film Independent. It was also presented, and won prizes, at Trieste’s When East Meets West (the Flow Post-Production Award) and Thessaloniki’s Agora Crossroads (the Musou Award for audio post-production).
ZUHAL is a Turkish-German co-production being staged by Anna Maria Aslanoglu, of Istanbul-based istos film, in co-production with Jamila Wenske, of Germany’s Achtung Panda!, Tanay Abbasoglu (TN Yapim), Tolga Karaçelik (Karaçelik Film) and Öykü Canli (Yumurta Yapim Sanat). The film is funded by the Turkish-German Co-Production Development Fund and is fiscally sponsored through Film Independent.
CENSOR by Peter Kerekes, co-producer: EAVE graduate Jiri Konecny is in post-production. Initially planned as docu-drama, the renowned Slovakian documentarian and producer Peter Kerekes has turned to fiction in his new film. CENSOR tells the story of Lyesa, a young woman who killed her husband in a fit of jealous rage. Her pregnancy is seen as a mitigating circumstance. In prison, Lyesa gives birth to a son, Kolya. Shortly before his third birthday, she’s hoping to get out on probation for good behaviour. When her request is turned down, Lyesa starts a race against time to contact her family and even the mother of her murdered husband, desperately trying to keep Kolya from ending up in an orphanage.”
CENSOR is being produced by Ivan Ostrochovský, of Slovakia’s Punkchart Films, and co-produced by Czech outfit endorfilm, Ukrainian company Arthouse Traffic, Slovakian firms Peter Kerekes Film and E-S Production, and Radio and Television Slovakia. The Slovak Audiovisual Fund and Czech Film Fund supported the movie, while the project received Eurimages funding and support from the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic and the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.
Page published 30 April 2020. Updated 29 May 2020.
