Screening
Asian New Force Category Finalist
The Translator
Emre Kayis
Turkey / Col / 23' 03" / In Kurdish with English subtitles
Yusuf, 13-year-old refugee boy, lives in a small Turkish border town. One of the things that excites his alienated life is a 15-year-old girl who always appears in his dream and has no interest in him. One day she comes and asks for his help which gives Yusuf the power to choose between using his power wisely or abusing it.
Artist’s Statement
Regardless to political conjuncture and the dominant ethic of the present time, I intend to focus on mankind and portrait its simple but eternal situations about existence, love and morality which are vastly attractive to me.
Among many other subjects and emotions, The Translator is a film about shame. The last line from Charles Baudelaire’s Albatross was my main source of inspiration: "His wings, those of a giant, hinder him from walking." I see Yusuf as a very beautiful boy vanishing gradually in the middle of the crowd.
