:: IFFK 2008 ::

Nothing can hold her back from her difficult journey from West to East. The only thing which drives her in the arduous journey is the strong desire to be with her beloved.

My Marlon and Brando is based on the true story of Ayca Damgaci, a theatre actor in Istanbul, who plays herself in the film. Ayca is yearning to rejoin her lover, Hamali Khan, a Kurdish actor living in Northern Iraq whom she met a couple of months before on a film set. It remained their first and last meeting. As the telephone conversations become more difficult with the outbreak of war in Iraq, Ayca's only relief is the video love letters sent to her by Hamali. She is desperate to meet him as their separation exasperates her more and more day by day and decides to go in search of her love despite the troubles she will have to face.

The images of deserted landscapes in eastern Anatolia add to the heartrending solitude which Ayca experiences. Huseyin Karabey’s film reflects the far-reaching painful consequences of war. We don’t see the war, but we can feel its effects on people throughout the whole film. The film talks about futile borders we create around us, the pointless arguments about life and the genuine urge within ourselves to challenge whatever hinders us from realizing our dreams.

The characters, the narration and the cinematography — nothing is predictable and conventional in this film. Though we tend to look for a dazzling beauty as a heroine, we see Ayca, a zaftig, charming young woman. As she goes through her emotional turmoil, she is easily misunderstood, disapproved of, and even rejected by her social context. The hardships of her travel, her incessant longing, and the awfulness of living amidst war are engraved powerfully in the frame. The poignant traditional music pulls us more into the core of the story.

We are moved considerably when we realize that Ayca is acting her own life. Hamali, whom we see through the videos, is not by any means acting for a film. The sequences where Ayca, with only her solitude to accompany her, waits in an entirely unknown place surrounded by strange faces will surely be imprinted in our minds.