OYUN (THE PLAY) Directed and produced by Pelin Esmer
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OYUN
(THE PLAY)
Directed and produced by
Pelin Esmer
Synopsis
Nine peasant women living in Arslankoy, a
mountain village in southern Turkey spend their
days working hard in the fields, on the
construction site and at home. To lighten the
burden of life, these women come together for a
wholly different reason. They intend to write and
perform a play based on their own life stories.
They gather at the local high school, which they
were shy of even stepping into until that day and
they work with the principal, Mr. Huseyin. They
reveal their life stories that they were even afraid
to tell themselves and confront. For days on end,
under the curious gazes of the village men, they work tirelessly, discuss and create with much fun a
play, “The Outcry of Women!” This documentary is about the development process of this play and
the change the women went through during this period.
World Premiere:
Istanbul International Film Festival 2005
International Premiere:
San Sebastian International Film Festival 2005 (Nominated for Best New Director Award)
www.oyuntheplay.com
Festivals and Awards
2005
Istanbul Witnesses of Our Time
San Sebastián Nominated for the Best New Director Award
São Paulo Nominated for the Best New Director Award
Montpellier Cinémed Nominated for the Best Documentary Film Award
Antalya Golden Orange Nominated for the Best Documentary Film Award
Guangzhou Doc Nominated for the Best Film Award
Warsaw Documentary Features
Berlin One World Human Rights Opening Film
Gijón Esbilla (Most distinguished)
IDFA Amsterdam Reflecting Images
Jakarta Panorama of Turkish Cinema
Dubai Contemporary World Cinema
2006
Tribeca Received The Best New Documentary Filmmaker Award
Trieste Received The Best Documentary Film Award
Créteil Women Films Received The Best Documentary Film Award
Navarra Punto de Vista Received The Audience Award
Nürnberg FF Turkey/Germany Received The Special Prize Of The Jury
Vitoria New European Film Received The Human Rights Award
Adana Golden Boll Received The In Memoriam Yilmaz Guney Award
Boston Turkish Films Received The Best Documentary Film Award
Centre Médittérrannéen de Received The Best Mediterranean Documentary Grand Prix,
Comunication Audiovisuelle FR3 and Algerian TV Awards
Turkish Cinema Writers Assoc. Awards Received The Special Prize of the Jury
Tromsø Nominated for the Best Film Award
Thessaloniki Doc Nominated for FIPRESCI Prize
Münich Doc Nominated for the Best Film Award
BritDoc Nominated for the Best Film Award
Santiago International Nominated for the Best Film Award
Oslo Films Fra Sør Nominated for the Best Film Award
Prizren DokuFest Nominated for the Best Film Award
Kassel Documentary Nominated for the Best Film Award
Seattle Documentaries
Angers Premiers Plans Panorama of Turkish Cinema and ForumDoc
Prague One World Human Rigths Music, play and human rights
Seoul Women Films New Currents
Linz Crossing Europe European Panorama
Amakula Kampala Others’ Voices
Israel Women Films Women in the Picture
Brisbane Islam Unveiled
Barcelona Docupolis Off Docupolis
New York Turkish Films Documentaries
Rochester High Falls Films
Dortmund Feminale Panorama
www.oyuntheplay.com
Credits
Original title Oyun
English title The Play
Length 70’ (DigiBeta), 73’ (35mm)
Language Turkish (English, French and Spanish subtitles)
Shooting format DV
Projection format DigiBeta (color), 35 mm (color)
Sound Digital Stereo (Digibeta), Dolby SR (35 mm)
Screen ratio 4:3 (DigiBeta), 16:9 (35 mm)
Directed by Pelin Esmer
Produced by Pelin Esmer
Co-producer Nida Karabol Akdeniz
Executive producer Tolga Esmer
Original Music Mazlum Cimen
Photography Pelin Esmer
Editing Pelin Esmer
Post production supervisor Cem Yildirim
Additional camera for the Mustafa Unlu,
play scenes Ozlem Ozbek
Production manager Peri Johnson
Sound Emrah Yildirim, Bulent Kilic
Players Arslankoy Village Theater Group: Behiye Yanik, Cennet Gunes, Fatma
Fatih, Fatma Kahraman, Huseyin Arslankoylu, Naside Kahraman,
Nesime Kahraman, Saniye Cengiz, Ummu Kurt, Ummuye Kocak,
Zeynep Fatih (all as themselves).
Distribution
World-wide ditribution rights: Sinefilm-Pelin Esmer
Contact: Tolga Esmer tolgaesmer@sinefilm.com,
Distribution in Turkey: Umut Sanat (www.umutsanat.com.tr)
The director’s perspective
Those nine women doing theater in their
own village would, in any case, write and
put on stage a play based on their life
stories, whether or not I made this movie.
That was the most exciting aspect of this
work for me. I wanted to shoot a fiction-
like documentary and not a documentary-
like fiction film, without trying to be
invisible but quietly integrating myself in
their lives at that very village, at that very
moment and with the very people living
through this happening. It has been a very
important experience for me to observe the
film move on the thin line between a documentary and a fiction film as time passed, whilst the line
between their real lives and their play blurred. Our filming crew of three eventually turned out to be
a part of their theater team. Working under similar circumstances they created, at the end of five
weeks, “the play of their lives”, and I created, at the end of two years, the film “The Play”.
www.oyuntheplay.com
Pelin Esmer
Born in 1972 in Istanbul. She majored in sociology at Bogazici
University. After graduating, she joined Turkish director Yavuz
Ozkan’s film workshop. She was assistant director in a number of
Turkish and foreign projects, including documentaries, features
and commercials. Her first film, the documentary “The Collector”
(2002) received the Best Documentary Award at Rome
Independent Films Festival. She gave lectures about documentary
film-making at Istanbul Kadir Has University .
In 2006, she received the Best New Documentary Filmmaker
Award in New York Tribeca Film Festival with “The Play”, as
well as twelve other international awards
Filmography
• Oyun – The Play (2005):
director, producer, cinematographer, editor
• Koleksiyoncu – The Collector (2002):
director, producer, cinematographer
• Gonlumdeki Kosk Olmasa – Omfavn Mig Måne/House of Hearts (by Elisabeth Rygard, 2002):
first assistant director
• Deli Yürek Bumerang Cehennemi– Wildheart, Hell of Boomerang (by Osman Sinav, 2001):
first assistant director
• Cumhuriyet – The Republic (by Ziya Oztan, 1998):
first assistant director
• Conversations acrross Bosphorus (by Jeanne Finley, 1995):
assistant director
What they said: reviews and critiques
• Time magazine - CNN: Pelin Esmer's The Play is a joyous celebration of the strength that comes
with finding your voice.
• Le Monde: A Turkish revelation in San Sebastián: Oyun, by Pelin Esmer, is distinguished by the
vigor of the subject and the genius of the personalities. This documentary follows, with much
sobriety, the preparation of a theatrical play by a group of Turkish peasant women. They had no
right to study, almost all were married by force and suffer the abuse of their spouse, the bullying of
their in-laws. The director captures an extraordinary process, which begins with the tales of
individual tragedies of each, and ends by the presentation of farce which they finally create. In the
course of rehearsals, these timid peasant women become fabulous actresses and develop
spontaneously an uncompromising and constructed feminist speech. At first experienced as a
hobby, the theatre becomes a question of life or death, which brings them self-respect, respect on
behalf of their husband, and an enormous hope for generations to come. In front of the camera, it is
a true revolution which took place, peaceful, emotional and dreadfully cheerful.
• Variety: Nine peasant women in the village of Arslankoy, southern central Turkey, achieve
varying amounts of personal liberation in ‘The Play,’ a bracing, good -natured portrait of rural
community via a theatrical performance based on their own lives. Standout docu in the recent
Istanbul festival is perfect fare for cultural TV slots… DV credits are fine, and sense of place is
acute.
• New York Magazine: Boisterously insightful, hilarious and socially relevant in equal measure,
and the perfect antidote to today’s crop of dryly crusading, good -for-you documentaries. Not to be
missed.
• TimesSquare.com: Enlightening, touching and inspiring.
• Ioncinema: Very entertaining and helps us understand the issues at “play”
www.oyuntheplay.com
• Senses of Cinema: Despite a strong showing by some veterans, however, probably the best film
among the Turkish works at this year’s festival – and, arguably, the best film at the entire [Istanbul]
fest – was Pelin Esmer’s The Play (Oyun)… The most striking thing about the film is how much
fun these women seem to be having – their play is mostly a comedy, even though many of the
objects of their scorn are in their only audience. Esmer’s film had only one screening at the festival,
and it screened outside of competition, so it won no awards. And yet the film’s electrifying, filled -
to-the-rafters screening may have been reward enough; Esmer had the foresight to bring her
amazing subjects with her, and their post-screening Q&A eventually devolved into relentless
applause and exclamatory praise yelled out from the audience. If it had been Sundance, the director
would probably have been canonised by now. Still, she may yet make it onto the international
circuit: The Play’s energetic combination of crowd -pleasing humour and sophisticated social
critique should carry well across borders.
• cinema scope: Istanbul’s most electrifying film was Pelin Esmer’s The Play (Oyun), a riveting
documentary. Esmer’s fi lm avoids the obvious exploitative pitfalls of her subject matter and
instead allows these audacious, charming women to speak for themselves; it’s a credit to her
remarkable balancing act that The Play works both as biting, hilarious social criticism and as a
tender tale of village life. The makeshift village stage provides Esmer’s heroines with an outlet for
their suppressed rage that allows them direct expression. For all its humour, The Play has the energy
of a long-gestating scream. It’s also a bracing corrective to the aestheticized melancholia on display
in much of the rest of today’s Turkish cinema.
• Gara: an exciting Turkish documentary by Pelin Esmer.. Pinched in creating a work of theater,
without resources but with passion and illusions, [the actresses] see to it that the audiance is
involved in the history and laughs with them. Everything is relative, yes, except the good histories,
those are universal.
• Euskanews & Media: Wonderful Turkish documentary... An ingenious, entertaining adventure,
with a load of social important claim. A delight of documentary that manages to capture the sparkle
of some real people. Unforgettable faces that will remain long time in my memory.
• Le Journal du Pays Basque: One of the nice surprises of the 53rd Donostia [San Sebastián]
International Film Festival.. universal.. with a cinematographic maturity.
• Le Journal du Pays Basque: This magnificient little film put a smile on the face of everyone
watching it.
www.oyuntheplay.com
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