Ara

Ara (2008)

Ara is the story of four people and an empty house. These people are stuck between their past and stormy relationships, between Istanbul and the "homes" they can't get back, between their innermost secrets and the lies they tell, between east and west. They are stuck in the "space between". The whole action takes place in an almost empty flat which is belong to one of the characters. The camera goes out only once. But various other visuals from commercials, TV series' that has been shot in the same flat, sneak into the film. Spanning around 10 years, the story is told between intervals of these visuals. Turkey has been through a huge change in the last 20-30 years. The modest country of the recent past is a faded memory compared to the consumerist life style of modern day. It is the time of ambitious people who can do anything to "live well", to "break through". This is the story of a small group of people who manage to "live well" but can't help getting lost in a spiritual vacuum.

Date of release
2008-03-22
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 29m
Genres
Drama
Director
Ümit Ünal

Casting

Interesting facts

Ara is a 2008 Turkish drama film directed by Ümit Ünal, starring Erdem Akakçe, Betül Çobanoğlu, Serhat Tutumluer, and Selen Uçer, all originally stage actors.

Production

Writer-director Ümit Ünal was expected to shoot Sultan Mutfakta after he completed Istanbul Tales, but preferred to make Ara instead for budgetary reasons. Ünal constructed the script especially for two actors, who both turned the offer down. The script was completed in the summer of 2006.

Ünal first came up with the idea of making a film on relations at a single setting, in one house, after moving out from his home where he lived with his ex-wife. According to Ünal, the script has autobiographical elements, "but rather the autobiography of a generation that is in its 40s now." Ünal also was inspired by English playwright Harold Pinter's 1978 play Betrayal that deals with an affair that entangles a married couple.

Shooting began on May 10, 2007, and both shooting and editing were completed in only 13 days, due to the being done on a daily basis as the shooting went on (a standard feature film usually takes from one month up to a year for the editing to be completed).

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended