Reha Erdem

I got introduced to Reha Erdem in 19th Kolkata International Film Festival. To tell you the truth I usually feel apprehensive about watching new films in the Film Festivals. Anything post 70s is new for me and “World Cinema” as a category is not that appealing. So I don't know what drew me to Reha Erdem’s films. May be because it was Turkey or maybe I did not have a better choice (at least I felt so at that time.)

So on 13 November 2014, a Wednesday, I went to see My Only Sunshine or Hayat Var in Nandan III hall. I did not know then how this film was going to affect me, I did not know, how this film will change my perception. But before I come to that a bit about the film has to be told.

Hayat Var is a story of survival of a teenage girl in unusual circumstance. Everything that goes on around Hayat seems to her as if it is happening to her. As a teenager, she does not always comprehend the full extent of the things that she is going through. But as a girl she has the instinct to rise up like a phoenix from the most detrimental of situations. Like a teenager she feels that nobody understand her, but like a girl, she recognises her sexuality and how to weaponize it. Hayat leaves her childhood in this film to attain an independent self. She meets a stranger and they rescue each other from lifetime of concern.

How simple can a narrative be that not only describes the mental space of a teenager but also of a girl. Hayat lived in a riverside shack near the beautiful waters of the Bosphorus. The waves of her life, combined with the waves of water around her. gave a swaying rhythm to the film. Like the high and ebb tide, events in Hayat’s life flow back and forth in succession. Repeated incidents of everyday life happen regularly but never the same way twice. With every confrontation Hayat grows up a bit, each time.

The film ended with no definite solution or hope fulfilment but with the sense that Hayat’s story continues as the waters of the Bosphorus keeps flowing.

I did not know anything about Reha Erdem as I went to see his film. But by the end of the film, I was sure that Reha Erdem must be a woman. How can she not be? I was thoroughly surprised to know that he was a man. Then I learnt Reha Erdem has graduated from Cinema Department of Paris 8 University. He obtained his M.A. in Plastic Arts at the same university. So I said to myself, “Thank God the French exists.”