Logline
A short while after his dominant wife abandons the wimpy and meek Hayati, who is a literary teacher in a patriarchal town, the police find an unrecognized female corpse by the lake. Hayati wants to state that the body belongs to his wife and to take the blame for the murder that someone else committed.
SYNOPSIS
Hayati is a small-town literature teacher and a one hit wonder author who tries helplessly to hold on to his past: his shattering marriage, his sick old mother, a decaying walnut tree and the memory of his father. Instead of moving on with his life and taking control, he passively accepts its blows and is only interested in digging into the past, until his discovery forces him to confront his own weakness and answer the question: is standing idle while witnessing evil being done is just as much of a sin as doing it?
Scenes From The Film
Backstage Scenes
Cast and Crew
| Cast | Written & Directed & Produced by | Co-Producer |
|---|---|---|
| Serdar Orçin, Sezin Akbaşoğulları, Kübra Kip, Mert Yavuzcan, Şebnem Dilligil, Rıza Akın |
Faysal Soysal | Ali Noori Oskuei |
| Line Producer | Director of Photography | Sound |
|---|---|---|
| Vedat Özdemir | Mustafa Bölükbaşı |
| Decor | Art Design | Costume |
|---|---|---|
| Natali Yeres | Nezihe Ateş | Gülşah Yüksel |
| Edited By | Composed by | Sound Designed and Mixed by |
|---|---|---|
| Mostafah Khergepoosh | Payam Azadi | Mohsen Roushan, Mohammad Mehdi Javaheri Zade |
| Color Correction | Special Effects | Production |
|---|---|---|
| Hootan Haghshenas | Yasin Allahdadian | Balkon Film |
| Co-Production |
|---|
| Balkon Film, Eshragh Film (Turkey-Iran) |
FROM DIRECTOR
When I was on my way to find and establish the language of my cinema, being forced to watch all the injustices and murders of our century played a big role in choosing story of ‘Silenced Tree’ for my second film. Even though recently the media’s attention to the increasing number of killings of women (in 2019, 474 women were killed by violence in Turkey) intensified in recent years, I noticed that there is not a sincere and worthy study, mentioning these tragedies. The most tragic issue was the fact that this savagery was still happening in a society that emphasizes morality and justice a lot. I want to look at a woman’s murder as a side-story from a different perspective and to bring in different dimensions.
With this film, I want to find the dying down fire of our conscience by confronting us, namely humanity, with our dark and cowardly traits and blaze the fire with optimism. For this reason, I want to penetrate the cost of witnessing a murder and suicide over a minimal event within different perspective. In my story, I want to discuss in detail the obscure literary teacher Hayati’s being a specter to a murder (slaughter of a woman by his husband) outside the town and not do anything against it as a problem of the entire humanity’s consciousness issue. I designed Hayati as a writer, who tries to protect his hope in the name of artistic creation in distress and deprivation like Van Gogh, so that we can think more broadly about what a pathetic and impotent individual can do and can not do in the face of crime and murder. In this case, when a person is looking for a strong root and hope through writing and literature, despite starting to live with his father’s fate of suicide, what this person, disabled with feebleness, cynicism, and skittishness, will do when he witnesses a murder that his father witnessed. This question has always been a question I have encountered with different shades of environment that I lived in. In my film, Hayati, the most weak and helpless person among those who have power and potential, sacrifices him and undertakes the murder committed in order to clean the common conscience of mankind. Because he knows like we know that the killings of woman will not end with the capture of the killer. However, waking up the conscience of the society and pulling under great responsibility is a big step forward for the future generations not to crush the weaker ones.
Festivals
AWARDS
Brittany International Film Festival (25th July, 2023),
Best International Script
Critics’ Choice Award for Best Director
FESTIVAL JOURNEY
- 39th Istanbul Film Festival Turkish Premier (27th July 2020)
- 31th Ankara Film Festival (7th September 2020)
- 27th Adana Film Festival,Turkey (14th September 2020) Best Music, Best Actor
- 42nd Moskow Film Festival, International Premier (5th October 2020)
- Eurosia Film Festival, Russia (November 2020), Best Camera
- Meraki Film Festival (31th January 2021)
- 6th Bremen Film Festival, Germany (15th April 2021) Best Literature Film
- Near Nezareth Film Festival (2nd June 2021)
- Izmir Film Festival (29th June 2021)
- Ischia Global Film Festival (18th July 2021)
- 25th Turkish-German Film Festival (25th July 2021)
- 13th Pri-Fest Film Festival (27th August 2021)
- Torino Underground Cinefest, Italy (5th September 2021) Best Film, Best Editing
- 11th Bejing Film Festival (25th September 2021)
- Balkan Panorama Film Festival, Turkey (2nd October 2021) Best Film, Best Actor
- Ankara Accesible Film Festival (17th October 2021)
- 21th Frankfurt Turkish Film Festival (25th October 2021)
- Abuja International Film Festival (3rd October 2021)
- Kosice International Film Festival (4th November 2021)
- 6th London City Film Awards (12th November 2021) Best Foreign Feature Film
- 6th Festival of Moving Image-The Artists Forum New York( 2nd Dec 2021),Best Film, Best Actor
- Lisbon Cinefest, (15th December 2021)
- 9th Antakya Film Festival, Turkey (16th December 2021), Best Actor
- Buenos Aires International Film Festival (30th Septm-Argentina- 2021)
- Nepal Film Festival (1st April 2022), Best Feature Film
- Transbaikaly Film Festival ( 26th May-Russia 2022)
- Fine Arts Film Festival of California (10th June- 2022), Best Director, Best Narrative Feature Film
- 5th IFF-International Film Festival (12th July-Torino, 2022)
- 2nd Neptune Film Awards of Bologna, (18th June-Italy, 2022), Best Film, Best Music Score
- 14th Hamilton New York Film Festival (18th July-US 2022), Best Film
- 8 & Halfilm Awards (20th August, Rome 2022) Best Human Rights Film
- 4th Munich Film Awards (22th August, Germany 2022) Best Film
- 3th Paradise Film Festival, Budapest (3th September, 2022
- 11th TIFF ODA Tetova ( 26th August, 2022)
- Kurdistan International Independent Film Festival (6-9 September, Erbil, 2022)
- Berlin Turkish Film Festival (18th September, 2022)
- Matera Film Festival (19th September, Italy, 2022)
- San Diego Film Awards (7th September, US, 2022), Best Film
- Paradise Film Festival ( 3th October, Hungary, 2022)
- Thokoza Film Festival (26-29 October, South Africa,2022)
- Symbotic Film Festival (30 October, Kiev-Ukrain, 2022)
- Meta Film Festival (27-29 October, Dubai, 2022)
- Spain Film Connect (3rd November, Balearic Island, 2022), Best International Film
- El Ojo Cojo International Film Festival (4th November, Madrid, 2022)
- Taste of Anatolia-Films from Turkey (5th November-London, 2022)
- 6.Brazil International Film Festival (7th November, Rio, 2022), Best Film
- Short Long World Festival, Corrientes (12th November-Argentina 2022)
- Ekurhuleni International Film Festival (24th Nov_Gauteng, 2022)
- Mesa International Film Festival Arizona (1th December, US, 2022)
- 76.Salerno International Film Festival (3nd December, Italy, 2022)
- 9th Pambujan International Film Festival(13th January, Philippines,2023)
- 3rd World Cinefest Film Festival( 15th January, Portugal, 2023)
- 15th Sofia Menar Film Festival(16th January, Bulgaria, 2023)
- Cinalfama Lisbon Screening and Awards (25th January, 2023)
- Australia Film Festival (15th March, 2023)
- Europa Film Festival (31th March, 2023)
- Brightlight Film Festival (19th May, 2023)
- Asia Film Festival (31th May, 2023)
- Spain Film Connect (23th April, 2023), Best International Film
- Brittany International Film Festival (25th July, 2023), Best International Script
- Dubai International Cine Carnival (5th September, 2023), Critics’ Choice Award for Best Director
