A Tale of Three Sisters

Critically highly approved in reviews during Berlinale 2019 and leading the Screen Daily chart until the very last day ‘A Tale of Three Sisters' by Emin Alper makes him a director to be reckoned with.

Mavi Boncuk |

SISTERS BY EMIN ALPER

SOURCE


STORY
Sisters is the story of three sisters from a poor village in Central Anatolia. The girls are given to affluent families as foster children in the hope of improving their lives. The middle sister, Nurhan (16), is handed over to the town’s doctor, Necati Bey (45). However, the older son, Özgur, still wets his bed every night and Nurhan has to wash his linen by hand every morning. Tired and angry with Özgur, she occasionally beats him. Once Özgur’s parents find out about the beating, they send Nurhan back to the village. The youngest of the sisters, Havva (13) lives at Turan Bey’s (40) house and looks after their youngest child, Metin, with all the love and affection she can muster. Metin is suffering from a deadly disease. Metin dies and, in spite of all her efforts to curry favour, Havva is sent back to the village. The oldest of the sisters, Gulsah (20), had been given to Necati Bey many years ago, but was sent back to the village because she had become pregnant as a result of her so-called relationship with a pharmacy apprentice. When Gulsah returns home, her father Emin (50) hastily marries her off to the poor village shepherd Veysel (30). Not happy with the obligation of fathering Gulsah’s ‘’illegitimate baby’’ Gökhan, Veysel looks forward to having a baby. Follow-ing Nurhan and Havva’s return, after many years the sisters are reunited. In one long night, the three sisters sit together and talk about their past experiences. Sometimes they chat with love and affection, but sometimes they harshly quarrel since they all want to go back to town, in competition with each other. On the same night, outside the village, Veysel, Emin and Necati are sitting around a fire for a long dinner table. The conversation goes on in an uneasy mood . Following a tense argument among men, Necati kicks Veysel. Veysel goes back home, out of rage and humiliation, spills the hot water from a boiling kettle over Gökhan. As Gökhan dies, Veysel vanishes into thin air. A few months pass. Everything is buried under the snow. Havva waits for Necati to take her to the town since he decides to take her as the new foster child (instead of Nurhan). Nurhan’s illness, which manifested itself a few months earlier, has progressed. Nurhan also waits for Necati to come to the village and examine her, thinking he owes this to her..Gulsah is pregnant, and before going to the city to live with her aunt, she wants to abort Veysel’s baby. The three sisters wait for the roads to become passable. On a cold winter day, Emin and his daughters wait for Necati, tense but hopeful, chatting beside the fire.


A Liman Film Production in co production with Horsefly Productions, Komplizen Film and Circe Films

DIRECTOR
Emin Alper was born in 1974 in Ermenek, Karaman. Trained in economics and history at Bogazici University-Istanbul, Alper holds a PhD in Turkish Modern History. His first feature, Beyond The Hill (2012), received numerous awards including the Caligari Film Prize at Berlinale Forum and Best Film at Asia Pacific Awards.The film has been screened at over 30 international film festivals and released in France (Memento Films) and Germany (Arsenal). His second feature Frenzy (2015) premiered at 72nd Venice Film Festival’s in Official Selection’s competition and received Jury Special Prize. Frenzy has also been a recipient of Jury Grand Prize at 9th Asica Pacific Screen Awards. Aside from his filmmaking career, Emin Alper teaches modern history in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at Istanbul Technical University.

FILMOGRAPHY:
• ABLUKA (FRENZY, 2015)
Selected Awards: 72nd
Venice International Film Festival Special Jury Prize / 9th Asia Pacific
Screen Awards Jury Grand Prize / 20th Sofia Film Festival Domaine Boyar Award for Best
Balkan Film / 22th Adana Golden Ball Film Festival National Competition Best Film, Audience
Award, Best Production Design, Best Editing, Promising Actor / 48th SİYAD (Turkish Film
Critics Association) Awards, Best Film, Best Director, Best Script, Best Editing.
• TEPENİN ARDI (BEYOND THE HILL, 2012)
Selected Awards: 62th Berlin International Film Festival Caligari Film Prize, Special Mention
for Best First Feature / 2012 Asia Pacific Screen Awards Best Film / 31st İstanbul International
Film Festival National Competition Best Film, Best Script, FIPRESCI Prize / 14th Taipei Film
Festival New Talent Competition Jury Special Prize / 47th Karlovy Vary International Film
Festival NETPAC Best Asian FilM / 18th Sarajevo Film Festival Jury Special Prize /
19th European Film Festival Palic Best Film / 2nd Osian Cinefan Film Festival Best First Feature
/ 7th Batumi International Art-House Film Festivali Best Director / 3th Malatya International Film
Festival National Competition Best Film, Best Script / 45th SİYAD (Turkish Film Critics
Association) Best Film, Best Script.
• RIFAT (2006), short
Selected Awards: Bucharest International Film Festival Best Short Film / !F !stanbul
Independent Film Festival Special Audience Award.
• 2005 MEKTUP (THE LETTER, 2005), short

TEAM
Written and directed by Emin Alper
Producers Nadir Öperli, Enis Köstepen
Co-producers Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dornbach, Stienette Bosklopper, Yorgos Tsourgiannis