BRITAIN born Turkish Cypriot film director Alkın Emirali continues to make a massive impact with his short films about Cyprus.
Alkın Emirali spoke to Londra Gazete and shared his thoughts and experiences in regards to his achievements and success. Recently Emirali has been contributed by Creative Europe for his recent film project.
We discussed Alkın Emirali’s short film ‘Our Cyprus’ and his current film ‘Goats and sheep’, Emirali stated:
“Our Cyprus is set in the current day in London. It’s about an old Greek speaking Turkish Cypriot man from Lurucina / Akincilar called Mehmet-Ali. He has a chance meeting with a young man who is the spitting image of the son he lost in the troubles that tore Cyprus in two.
CHANCE FOR HAPPINESS
Mehmet-Ali sees the chance for happiness in a relationship with this substitute son. His path to happiness is blocked however as the young man, a Greek Cypriot is brought up in the aftermath of the troubles in which he lost family, he wants nothing to do with a Turkish Cypriot.
Our Cyprus was made as a proof-of-concept for a feature film I’m writing set in 1920’s Cyprus called Goats & Sheep. Our Cyprus was instrumental in my producer and I were awarded development funding from Creative Europe for Goats & Sheep.
REMINDER OF A NARRATIVE FOR CYPRUS
For me, the story of Mehmet-Ali at the heart of the film is a reminder of a narrative for Cyprus that came before the narratives of enosis and Taksim. Partıcularly a reminder of a time where nothing was as binary as Turkish and Muslim and Greek and Christian, a time when the cultures were so entwined that Cypriots were more like one people than two. If you extrapolate this message out to a universal level I guess the message is, us humans, we are all essentially the same.
AFFIRMATION OF STRENGTH
It is wonderful to be awarded development funding from Creative Europe for Goats & Sheep, it’s a great affirmation of the strength of the project, it’s an excellent start to this film’s journey and it definitely says that my team and I are serious contenders.”
