RTS Student Fırat Özeler’s documentary “Kavur” will have its world premiere in Rotterdam

Fırat Özeler, our 4th year student from the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema, has achieved a great success. Özeler’s documentary film “Kavur”, which he has been working on for three years, will have its world premiere at the 52nd Rotterdam International Film Festival, one of the world’s most prestigious festivals, which will be held between January 25-February 5, 2023, as part of the “Cinema Regained” program, which features restored classics, film culture documentaries and archival discoveries.

Along with this documentary focusing on director and screenwriter Ömer Kavur, who is one of the most important names of Turkish cinema with many films such as “Anayurt Oteli”, “Night Journey”, “The Hidden Face” and “The Scorpion’s Journey”, Ömer Kavur’s short film “Hamal”, which has never been shown anywhere before, will also meet the audience in Cinema Regained program. Another previously unseen film of the director, “Suicide”, will be screened in the “Kavur” documentary along with the story of the discovery of these two short films.

Fırat describes the journey of the documentary “Kavur” from the idea stage to the world premiere in Rotterdam in the following words:

“Kavur’s adventure started 3 years ago. Ömer Kavur was a person I had been interested in for many years, both with his films and his personality, and I believed that he really needed to be told. After the idea had been growing in my head for a while, I told this idea to Elif Akçalı for the first time in the documentary course I was taking at the time. And at that point, the concrete development process of the project actually began. She and Ms. Melis Behlil have been the ones who have been the biggest supporters of the project from the very beginning.

“On the one hand, we started to improve the development of the film on paper with the support of many people, and on the other hand, we started to fund the film. At this point, Kadir Has University Creative Industries Platform (YEP) was the igniter for us by giving the first support to the film. Ms. Sezgi Özentürk and dear Melisa Artan from YEP made our work very easy with their help. Since this was the first support for the film, it was also very important for us on a moral level. Later, we received the support of many institutions, especially the Ministry of Culture, and we realized our shootings. We shot in 3 countries and 21 cities, and the shootings were completed in about a year. During this research, we found and digitized two short films by Ömer Kavur that had never been shown anywhere before and that no one knew about (“Hamal”, 13′, Turkey, 1971; “Suicide”, 9′, Turkey, 1971).

“Actually, up to this point, our team was only 3 people. It was just me, our producer Emir Melek and our legal advisor Zehra Kurt. After the filming was over, we decided to expand our team and set bigger goals in front of us in order to reveal more of the film’s potential. At the very beginning, Ömer Akgün, a student of RTS and Business Administration (minor) at our school, successfully took on the role of executive producer. We started editing with RTS student Melis Terlemez and Melis was one of the people who shaped the movie. With the involvement of many people over time, a great team emerged.

“Dear Cem Yılmaz, Funda Eryiğit and our dear teacher Tilbe Saran from the Theater Department of our school voiced 3 different characters who are the narrators in the film. This was a big step for us and for the movie. We are currently in post-production; by the end of December the film will be completely finished and will have its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival. At the same time, we will also be presenting the two short films we found there, and we will present them to the audience for the first time in 52 years after they were made. ‘Hamal’ will have its world premiere in a separate screening, and ‘Suicide’ will be included in our documentary with the story of the discovery of these two short films. I must say that I am also proud of this.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

“Birçok kurumun ve kişinin desteğiyle ve bütün ekip arkadaşlarımın çok büyük emeğiyle gerçekleşmiş bir film Kavur. Böyle bir ekiple çalışmış olmanın şansını hissediyorum ve herkese minnettarım. Aynı zamanda Ömer Kavur gibi bir insanın hak ettiği ilgiyi görmesine ufak da olsa bir katkı sunmaktan da büyük bir mutluluk duyuyorum.”

We congratulate our student Fırat and look forward to his and his documentary’s new achievements.

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Kavur, Yön. Fırat Özeler, 89′, Türkiye, 2023

Hamal (The Porter), Yön. Ömer Kavur, 13′, Türkiye, 1971

Rotterdam Uluslararası Film Festivali (IFFR): https://iffr.com/

IFFR Cinema Regained programının detaylarını incelemek için tıklayınız.