Sivas
Kaan Müjdeci
Establishing a bleak Anatolian village in Eastern Turkey as its setting, Sivas features the story of Aslan, an eleven year old boy, and Sivas, a weathered fighting dog, who develop a strong relationship after Aslan finds Sivas wounded in a ditch, left to die. Meanwhile, a school play of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves dominates the background as Aslan is disappointed in losing the role of the prince to Osman, his rival-in-love and son of the village head. While Osman gets ahead in the two boys' race to win the hand of Ayse, Aslan tries to impress her with his new-found friend. And Sivas, having found a new lease on life, wins one fight after another, strengthening Aslan's hand against Osman.
Born in Ankara, Turkey, Kaan Müjdeci moved to Berlin, Germany in 2003 in order to study film directing. Instead, he first opened an illegal open-air cinema, then a bar, and finally, a fashion store. In parallel to all these aventures, Kaan has continued film making. Among his short films, Day of German Unity was bought by several TV channels; and Jerry, his thesis film at the New York Film Academy, was screened within the scope of Berlinale's Talent Campus. Müjdeci's documentary Fathers and Sons, about dog fights in central Anatolia, served as a platform to write and direct his first feature film entitled Sivas.
"Sivas is its own child – not an immaculate conception but a film that gives birth to itself slowly, along the ride. In this sense, it could be defined as a movie with a somehow experi-mental film grammar. However, my aim here does not attempt to be experimental for the sake of it, but rather that tries to reflect in truth the mercurial life of rural Anatolia. The processed images of films that depict the village life shows a settlement supposed to be sleepy, with a character that longs to escape it."
"Sivas is its own child – not an immaculate conception but a film that gives birth to itself slowly, along the ride. In this sense, it could be defined as a movie with a somehow experi-mental film grammar. However, my aim here does not attempt to be experimental for the sake of it, but rather that tries to reflect in truth the mercurial life of rural Anatolia. The processed images of films that depict the village life shows a settlement supposed to be sleepy, with a character that longs to escape it."