Screening:
Murat and Ismail

SALT Beyoğlu, Walk-in Cinema
July 9-13 13.00, 17.00, 19.00
July 14 13.00, 17.00

Murat and Ismail
Mario Rizzi (2005/2006)
57 minutes
Turkish with English subtitles

The film Murat and Ismail focuses on a single family-run shoemaker’s shop in the neighborhood of Beyoğlu and depicts the lives of a father and son as they experience first-hand the economic transformations ripping through the city of Istanbul. Edited to create an artist-led narrative, the film encourages us to question the fine-line between fact and fiction.

As the nature of the relationship between the father (Ismail) and his son (Murat) gradually emerges, we are introduced to other characters that visit the shop and try in different ways to take advantage of their difficult economic situation. Mario Rizzi’s interest in the subject came from his observation of the different value systems that Murat and Ismail represent and the way they could serve as a distillation of the general situation in Istanbul. Tied together by the love and loyalty of family and familiarity, they constantly clash, make up and clash again, in a recognisable cycle that is always endangered by threats to the continuation of the shop itself.

As with much of Rizzi’s previous work, the piece manages to be both sympathetic and direct, recording with amazing intimacy the hopes and fears of people who are generally subject to forces beyond their control.