Award winning Turkish director Faysal Soysal talks to iFilm

iFilm English TV has interviewed with Turkish filmmaker Faysal Soysal, director of award winning ‘Silence Tree’.

“I am very happy to hear that we got 2 awards from Torino Film Festival with our film ‘Silence Tree’; best film and best editor. I am very happy specially about editing award, because Mostafa Kherqehpoush is a very talented Iranian editor. I think he is one of the best,” he said.

“I want to thank our crew, because we really worked too much before pandemic with talented crew and bring out such a kind of movie. And we like Italian cinema too much. We inspire too much from Italian directors. So it is very honorable award for us. And again, I want to thank to the jury and organizers of this festival during this pandemic time,” Soysal added.

The 8th edition of the Torino Underground Cinefest in Italy awarded Iranian-Turkish production ‘Silence Tree’ early September.

Produced by Ali Nouri-Oskouee from Iran, the co-production won the awards for best film and best editing. Iranian editor Mostafa Kherqepoush received the award for best editing.

‘Silence Tree’ tells the story of Hayati, a writer whose talent as well as his married life is going from bad to worse.

He is deeply obsessed with reviving a dried walnut tree at his father’s house. The more he tries to dig into his father’s past and death, the more confused and lost he gets.

Finding out about his wife’s scandal is a terrible bluster, but his apparently weak character does not let him to react properly.

While struggling to get rid of his hellish life, he meets his best friend’s fiancée, who looks so much like his own ex-girlfriend, and inspires him to write again. Surprisingly, the walnut tree starts budding, too.

Just as hope flares up inside him, his mother dies and his wife runs off with her lover. He can no longer stand the situation and leaves the town.

A couple of days later, the police discover the burned body of a woman. Hayati is arrested and accused of the murder. Though innocent, he pleads guilty.

‘Silence Tree’ was initially named ‘Walnut Tree’, but it was renamed due the similarity of the title to an Iranian movie with the same title by Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian.

Born in 1979, Soysal is a Turkish poet and film director. He left medical school to focus on poetry and cinema in 2000.

Between 2003 and 2007, he finished his MA on Film Directing at Tehran Art University, Iran and at the same time, did New Turkish Literature at Van Yuzuncuyil University, Turkey.

He made four short films in Iran, which were awarded at different international film festivals.

In 2008, he attended the New York Film Academy with the help of a scholarship and directed four short films. His first feature ‘Crossroads’ (2013, filmed in Turkey and Bosnia) won 13 awards from different film festivals.

He has also published books on poetry and cinema.

The 8th Torino Underground Cinefest also awarded Iranian actress Sousan Parvar for her role in ‘Botox’ by Kaveh Mazaheri. The Torino event was held on September 2-9, 2021.

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Torino Underground awards Iranian-Turkish ‘Silence Tree’

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