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Turkish Director Zeki Demirkubuz Reveals How 15-Minute Interaction In A Border Town 35 Years Ago Led To ‘Life’ – Contenders International


Turkish director Zeki Demirkubuz talks about how a 15-minute interaction in a border town 35 years ago led to his film ‘Life’, Turkey's official Oscar entry.

Turkish director Zeki Demirkubuz taps into his country’s zeitgeist with contemporary drama Life(Hayat), starring Miray Daner as a young woman who runs away to Istanbul to escape an arranged marriage but still struggles to break free of male domination. “The whole story began 35 years ago during an Anatolian trip to a small border town, when I had a 15-minute interaction with a young woman who was managing something like a bodega,” Demirkubuz told a Deadline Contenders International panel. “That little interaction I had with her grew into the story you just mentioned — a young woman trying to live out her dreams in a society dominated by male figures such as a lover, a father, a fiancée, a husband.”

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