7th(2005)
The Split / Parcalanma
Canan Gerede
- Iceland, Turkey
- 1999
- 90min
- 35mm
- color
SYNOPSIS
The film is inspired by the true story of a child custody lawsuit that sparked a passionate debate in Turkey. In 1980, a young Icelandic woman named Sol Jensen marries a Turkish man, Halil Bey, and has two daughters with him. Sol demands a divorce when she can’t endure his abusiveness and unrelenting jealousy any longer, and Halil returns to Turkey. Since the children miss their father, she packs them off to Turkey for summer vacation, but Halil breaks his promise to send the girls back and intercepts any attempt to contact them.
Frantic, Sol flies to Turkey to retrieve them. She discovers that in the eyes of the Turkish government, she cannot prove that she is their mother; denounced as a kidnapper, Sol is banned from entering Turkey for three years. In the meantime, Halil becomes a successful businessman and cultivates political power under the protection of the Islamic fundamentalists who hold sway even in the courts of law. The children are torn between missing their mother and feeling betrayed because they have been told she abandoned them. In the end, Sol files a suit for the custody of the children, challenging outright Turkish patriarchy and nationalism. The Split provokes viewers to consider how women confront differences in nation, culture, and religion. (Nam In-young)
Frantic, Sol flies to Turkey to retrieve them. She discovers that in the eyes of the Turkish government, she cannot prove that she is their mother; denounced as a kidnapper, Sol is banned from entering Turkey for three years. In the meantime, Halil becomes a successful businessman and cultivates political power under the protection of the Islamic fundamentalists who hold sway even in the courts of law. The children are torn between missing their mother and feeling betrayed because they have been told she abandoned them. In the end, Sol files a suit for the custody of the children, challenging outright Turkish patriarchy and nationalism. The Split provokes viewers to consider how women confront differences in nation, culture, and religion. (Nam In-young)
PROGRAM NOTE
The film is inspired by the true story of a child custody lawsuit that sparked a passionate debate in Turkey. In 1980, a young Icelandic woman named Sol Jensen marries a Turkish man, Halil Bey, and has two daughters with him. Sol demands a divorce when she can’t endure his abusiveness and unrelenting jealousy any longer, and Halil returns to Turkey. Since the children miss their father, she packs them off to Turkey for summer vacation, but Halil breaks his promise to send the girls back and intercepts any attempt to contact them.
Frantic, Sol flies to Turkey to retrieve them. She discovers that in the eyes of the Turkish government, she cannot prove that she is their mother; denounced as a kidnapper, Sol is banned from entering Turkey for three years. In the meantime, Halil becomes a successful businessman and cultivates political power under the protection of the Islamic fundamentalists who hold sway even in the courts of law. The children are torn between missing their mother and feeling betrayed because they have been told she abandoned them. In the end, Sol files a suit for the custody of the children, challenging outright Turkish patriarchy and nationalism. The Split provokes viewers to consider how women confront differences in nation, culture, and religion. (Nam In-young)
Frantic, Sol flies to Turkey to retrieve them. She discovers that in the eyes of the Turkish government, she cannot prove that she is their mother; denounced as a kidnapper, Sol is banned from entering Turkey for three years. In the meantime, Halil becomes a successful businessman and cultivates political power under the protection of the Islamic fundamentalists who hold sway even in the courts of law. The children are torn between missing their mother and feeling betrayed because they have been told she abandoned them. In the end, Sol files a suit for the custody of the children, challenging outright Turkish patriarchy and nationalism. The Split provokes viewers to consider how women confront differences in nation, culture, and religion. (Nam In-young)
Director
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Canan GeredeCanan Gerede
Born in New York in 1948, Canan Gerede first studied theatrical improvisation in Caracas, Venezuela and then studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York before turning to documentary filmmaking. She made her professional acting debut in 1977 as the lead in a Turkish television series. She worked with Yilmaz G웢ey, between 1978-1982, most notably as the assistant on his film Yol (1982). After directing several documentaries, she made her first feature film Robert’s Movie in 1991, which enjoyed a major critical success at the International Critics’ Week at Cannes. The Split is her third feature after Love Is Colder Than Death (1995).
Credit
- ProducerFridrik Thor Fridriksson, Eliane Stutterheim
- Cast Bennu Gerede, Mahir Gynsiray, Baltasar Kormakur
- Screenwriter Canan Gerede
- Cinematography Peter Steuger
- Editor Suzanne Koch
- Sound Kjartan Kjartansson
