THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If you are on the edge of your seat while watching the hysterical performance of the mentally-disturbed character Elmas in the Turkish moive ‘Clair Obscur’, the credit will go to the painstaking efforts of the movie’s screenwriter-director Yesim Ustaoglu.
The internationally-acclaimed auteur had spent nearly a year, mostly visiting psychiatric wards of hospitals, while scripting the movie. The aim was to flawlessly etch on celluloid Elmas' mental condition and the ensuing psychiatric treatment scenes, which the audiences watched in awe.
“I ensured that the scene, which may have been termed as gripping, should be flawless since it involves a particular method of psychiatric treatment. Even psychiatrists have vouched for the originality of the scenes. And I am happy that it came out well,” Ustaoglu told ‘Express’ on the sidelines of the film fete.
‘Clair Obscur’ is being screened at the international competition section at the ongoing International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK)
“I create my characters and I also follow them very diligently. As far as my movies are concerned they are just images. It is for the audience to give the interpretation,” she says with humility.
The Movie
Through ‘Clair Obscur’, Ustaoglu offers a parallel study of two women. One is a psychiatrist with a long-time live-in partner. The other is a young wife in a tyrannical household. Both get liberated from the shackles, but only after going through a tumultuous phase. By brilliantly intertwining the lives of the two women, the 56-year-old director offers a glimpse of the possibilities and limitations that exist for women in modern day Turkey.
Breaking The Shackles
The movie should not be seen as ‘anti-male’, asserts the director. According to Ustaoglu, the film is only a portrayal of the system which traps women in bad relationships. While many would see the film as an inspiration for women to break the shackles,
it is in no way removed from reality. It clearly shows that not all women enjoy the liberty to walk away from relationships that gnaw them from the inside,
she says.