The ‘Kim Ki Duk’ impact in the 7th Bosphorus Film Festival!
7th Bosphorus Film Festival carried out its last event with the experienced director Kim Ki Duk. During the masterclass event took place on Thursday, October 14th between 18:00-19:30 hrs at Cinema Feriye, cinema lovers listened to the director’s experiences he had in the industry from himself with his own words. Moderator of the masterclass event was the Artistic Director of the 7th Bosphorus Film Festival, Emrah Kılıç.
Kim Ki Duk, who is the guest of honor of the festival that is organized with support of the General Directorate of Cinema of Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Corporate Business Partner – TRT (Turkish Radio and Television association), the Global Communications Partner – Anadolu Agency (AA) and the Corporate Communications Partner – TürkMedya, and who will receive an Honorary Award at the closing ceremony of the festival, started his words by thanking for the invitation he received to the festival. The director said: “I am pretty happy for meeting with cinema lovers having such interest. Thank you for watching me and my films” and replied as follows to the question on how he decided during the decision-making process of his films: “During my 25-year career as of today, I produced 25 films. I achieved to create a film for each year. Once the idea of producing a film emerges, each time the process flows uniquely based on the relevant film. For example, in the film ‘Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring’ -which I assume that many of you have already watched- indeed I got inspired from the snow that was on the peak of a mountain I was watching one day. I prepared the film through my notes. Together with team, I created a film while none-of-us actually knew what the next scene was. After shooting a scene, the whole team was waiting for me while I was thinking about the next scene. The process always proceeded this way. In the film ‘3-Iron’, my starting point was a very simple idea. The idea came from a leaflet that I found when I opened the drawer in my house. In my film ‘Aden’, I got inspired from the tiny houses I saw while passing by a lake during the bus trip I took one day. I started writing the script at the very instant I saw that beautiful landscape. Therefore, I did not have a standard process for all films but had a special idea for each film. The idea about this film, on the other hand, emerged from those people who are generally considered as ‘bad people’ by others. We sometimes forget that even those people we consider as ‘bad’ have weaknesses, so, this film focuses on this aspect.” Stressing the importance of the phrase ‘maternal love’ in Korea, the experienced director said that bad characters in people indeed arise from the lack of this maternal love.
Making statements also about his 25-year old career, the experienced director stated as follows: “I do not hold a cinema degree. I has been working in factories since I was 15. During this time, I hoped that my life would change and improve for me. Because I worked with my body, I searched the ways for getting out of this situation and having a more comfortable job. At that time, the only thing I could do and had talent for was drawing. And the second one was taking photographs. These were things that one could do without having a degree from a school. I always dreamt of a better life. It was, of course, a hard process. Therefore, I always tried to do something new. When I was 20 years old, I served for 5 years in the Naval Forces although the military service was not compulsory for me at that time. It was a very hard process. The film through which I reflected that period was ‘The Coast Guard’. After 5 years, I left the navy and again mingled with the society. For two years, I worked in a foundation helping the visually impaired people. Later, I traveled to France with a small amount of money. I earned my life by drawing portraits of people on a desk. I watched two films in France; the first one was ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ -which surprised me a lot-, and the second one was ‘The Lovers On The Bridge’. Watching this film made me have different ideas. Following this, I started writing scripts. I did not know how to write a script, so I started writing prose.”
Lastly, he mentioned that -although he is prone to rapidly forgetting the names and the directors of the films that he watches- he appreciates the filming style of our world-famous director, Nuri Bilge Ceylan; and at the end of the masterclass event, he sang the marches that he composed on his own for his film ‘Arirang’.