Guests

Serdar Akar, Turkey

The scene is set, lights are positioned, and actors are ready. Screening should start, but for me, as a director, there are a number of things that I'm worried about. First, I wonder if I set the cameras adequately for general frame. This is very important. Then, I'm not sure if I completely explained to actors what I was looking for. But this will be evident soon, when we start screening. It doesn't matter, 3, 2, 1, and camera. A pregnant woman is in the corner of a little house, in fear, looking at the door. She is too scared, but we will wait for the door to be opened. We shout, "Get in!" and a man, as an enemy soldier in his uniform, holding a gun, is entering the room. The woman is screaming, and the man is yelling and attacks the woman. For God's sake, they got this all wrong. The thing that I was worried about has just happened. What I have to do now is to find the right way.

I talk to the actors, and I say, "Didn't I tell you: 'Break the door and attack the woman'? And you, lady, started to scream before you saw the man." He tells me, "That is what you said." "Oh really, I said that?" Than the woman says, "Yes, that's exactly what you said." I think, and I realize that I didn't explain the way I should, because the scene that I have just seen is something that is absolutely not convincing, nor contains any of human emotions. I say, "Look, gentlemen, you are lost in this damn war. You, lady, do not have to be an icon of innocence that had become pregnant in the biggest and the most saint love in this world, and that lost her husband during the war. Nor do you, young man, have to be someone who will, after seeing the pregnant woman and realizing her helpless situation, dare to rape her. Don't forget that it's not too important who is positive and who is negative. The war is something horrible, and you are the victims of this situation.

Ok, now enter the room again." The young soldier is leaving the room; the actress is putting a pillow on her stomach and lies on the floor. 3, 2, 1, and camera. The man is coming in again. At the moment when he sees her, he is pointing his weapon towards her. This time the woman is not screaming, but looking at him worried, he approaches step by step, she moves back, and as she moves back, her skirt is rising up. She is holding her stomach, as if she wants to show her baby. He is stooping down and approaching her. Her body is becoming more and more exposed. The man stops for the moment and turns to me, "Boss, I can't do this. I can't rape the woman in this kind of situation." I ask him, "Why? You know that pregnant women get raped during wars." He says, "Because this is the moment when I'm not just a war victim. I became someone who is in crisis for not being with a woman for a long time; there are these kind of people in the real world. In New York, women get raped every day, for example, some of those women are pregnant." I think this young man is right. Yes, if he didn't have the uniform, who would have known that this is happening because of war? This is something that could happen anywhere. I feel uncomfortable.

Is cinema cruel this much? There have been wars since the beginning of humanity, and if cinema has also existed since then, the solution would have probably been found by now. It would have probably been easier to other art branches to express how specific tragedy war is; music, painting, literature, are all old art branches, that have existed long before cinema. However, poor cinema, when compared to Shakespeare who lived 650 years ago, has a history only one century long. This is still the period when it makes its first steps. Even the main rules that have existed till now, are the subject of discussions, they are even almost nullified. They are nothing compared to music with extraordinary history.

Now we are in position to address serious insinuations and critics to the war reality that has existed since the humanity, with the experience of only one century. Can't we do this through this short, but important war scene? "Wait, no quitting. We will try again.. Let's sit and talk. What should we do?" The actress says, "Maybe if I wasn't pregnant, it would be easier for the actor to concentrate, the act of raping would be easier, it could become a motive for the soldier and I to have a closer contact." I approach and "take off the baby" from her stomach. After I threw the pillow to some corner, I shout: "3, 2, 1, camera!" The man is entering again. He points the weapon towards her. The woman is running back. The soldier is dropping the weapon and approaching. She is moving back more. He is grabbing her quickly and starting to tear her clothes off. She is screaming, yelling, trying to run away. She is becoming dulled. He is starting to take his clothes off. He sticks to her body. She is lost. She is trying to stop him. Believe me, if someone entered the room at this moment, he would have thought that these are the lovers that hadn't met for years. I shout again: "Cut, cut. 10 minutes break." The reason for this break is to make sure the passions are curbed.

In my opinion, making films can be inspired from three sources:

1. From what we see in reality
2. From what we have seen in previous films
3. From what we can teach the audience to through that film.

I can't see and find the other solution except accepting what people experience and realize in reality, and I can't make anything else. Considering the second possibility, cinema history is still young. The third possibility really is what we are trying to do. Definitely, there is no other choice than the first possibility. I prefer to return to the first variant. I put the pillow back on the woman's stomach. 3, 2, 1, and I shout: "Camera." The man is entering in his uniform and attacks the woman lying on the floor, like an animal.

People know. War is horrible and people in war, no matter on whose side they are, really are war victims.