Two Women Behind Bars  (Post-production)

Two Women Behind Bars

Director: Mehmet ERYILMAZ
Cast: Zümrüt ERKIN, Pervin BAĞDAT
Producers: Vedide KAYMAK (Atlanta Film)
Additional Credits: Mehmet ERYILMAZ (Writer), Şafak ILDIZ (Cinematographer/DP), Sultan İLHAN (Editor), Ahmet KOLBURAN (Art Director), Murat TUĞSUZ (Composer)

Synopsis

Zerda is a young woman who was convicted of murdering her boyfriend and became a mother involuntarily. Esra, the wife of the man she killed, is a middle-aged mother with a sick daughter. The last chance for the survival of her daughter is the matching marrow that will be transplanted from Zerda’s son. Esra begins to see Zerda in prison to persuade her. However, Zerda, angry and wounded, has no intention of signing the necessary permit paper for the marrow transplant operation. Zerda begins to play a game with Esra. Their meetings grow more and more vexing each time. The two women almost fall apart; INSTANTANEOUS opens the box of Pandora. All that is known about womanhood, maternal instinct, love, human nature, and spiritual and psychological aspects of the relationship between man and woman come out in the open.

Two Women Behind Bars Trailer

 

 

 

Zeynep ve Musa  (Shooting dates TBA)

To the eternal memory in our hearts of Abelard and Heloise…
Laila and Majnun, Farhad and Shirin, Romeo and Juliet.
Screenplay: Mehmet Eryılmaz
Dialogue writer: Zeynep Avcı – Mehmet Eryılmaz

 
Synopsis

Adapted from Ronald Duncan’s ‘Abelard and Heloise’

Zeynep and Musa is a love story set in the Mardin-Midyat region of southeast Anatolia in probably the eleventh century. Musa, aged in his 50s, is a leading astronomer, poet and philosopher of the day. Zeynep, a ward of her uncle, is a bright young woman in her mid-20s who devours books, as well as writing them, and has a particular interest in poetry and philosophy. In order to further her studies, her uncle decides it would be a good idea for Zeynep to take classes from Musa.

Musa and Zeynep are taken with each other from the first time they meet at her uncle’s house. Their relationship remains at arm’s length for a while, but gradually becomes closer and shades into a love affair. It is, of course, a forbidden relationship and one that is conducted clandestinely.

But try as they may to hide it, their affair is sensed and comes into the open. They then part. But Zeynep can’t bear not seeing Musa and leaves her uncle’s home.

Musa has heard talk of the uncle becoming increasingly jealous of Zeynep. Musa and Zeynep get married to legitimize their relationship in every way.

Their marriage is too much for the uncle to handle. Convinced that Musa has cajoled Zeynep into wedlock, he gathers his men, breaks into Musa’s house under the cover of night and beats Musa to within an inch of his life. Musa is left blind in one eye... Fearing that the uncle will also harm Zeynep, Musa sends her to live in a faraway monastery of sorts... The years slip by. It is around ten years later that the film begins, when Zeynep happens to get hold of a letter written by Musa to a friend of his. The chance event initiates a string of correspondence between Zeynep and Musa, which forms the backbone of the film.

The earlier part of the story described above comes out in the letters and is dramatized in the form of flashbacks.
 
During the course of their correspondence, the romance between Musa and Zeynep is rekindled, but at Musa’s urging, their love gradually evolves from the physical into the spiritual and the discovery of unconditional love.
 
As an integral part of human nature, love exists with no heed for age, gender, social or economic status, class or category, and forges ahead independent of the people concerned. The correspondence between Musa and Zeynep is characterized by a whirl of subtle and intense emotion that could be described as the anatomy of love. Throughout, the script and dialogue embrace literary details that are hard to consciously articulate, let alone define.
 
As the letters are written and read by the recipient, the two former lovers gradually shift their focus towards divine love. But at the same time, Musa ruefully confesses his profound sense of guilt in frank detail, a painful move that leads him onto a journey akin to suicide.
 
By now, Zeynep has reached a point where she no longer needs Musa; God is her true love. And she is with Him unconditionally at all times, no matter what...

The end credits begin.