Before the Night | AKFF
Depicting the ordinary life of three characters living under a state of emergency - a painter, her mother who models for her, and her father who tries to reimagine their war-stricken city through old photographs.
Before the Night portrays ordinary life under the enduring state of emergency, from the perspective of its three characters. Gulbîn, a painter living with her parents, is trying to make her own way in life, while obsessively painting a portrait of her mum with inspiration from Whistler’s painting Mother. The mother models for her daughter while trying to insulate her house from the noise of the bombs to no avail. The father, whose health is deteriorating, tries to reimagine his war-stricken city with old photographs he has taken.
The screening of Before the Night will be preceded by the short film Address (16 min.) by Aram Dildar. A big surprise awaits the teacher who is appointed to his hometown, which he knows like the back of his hand; the village he was assigned is not in the maps or on any official records. Edip is appointed to his hometown as a teacher just after graduating from university. When he goes to the government office to start work, he learns that the village he was assigned to is not in the records. He could not tolerate the slowness of the bureaucracy any longer because schools are about to open. He starts to search for Yeşilköy himself, which cannot be found in any of the official records, in the region he knows like the back of his hand. Edip, who is looking for Yeşilköy in Diyarbakır, will find himself in one of Turkey’s biggest political problems.