10/07/2003 - Turkish-born filmmaker talks about the pleasure he gets from audience reaction to his touching drama and reveals that his next film will be made in Naples

The French premiere of the award-winning Italian film Facing Windows [+see also:
trailer
interview: Ferzan Ozpetek
film profile] by Ferzan Ozpetek took place on the evening of 9 July during the International Meetings at Paris Cinéma. After the screening, the Turkish-born director who has lived in Rome for the last twenty years talked about the film and his work with the Forum des Images audience.

Co-produced by Italy-Turkey-the UK and Portugal, Facing Windows is Ozpetek’s fourth feature and was seen by almost 3 million Italian filmgoers. It also won favour with the critics who praised the excellent performances of two leading cast members, Giovanna Mezzogiorno and the late Massimo Girotti, who sadly died before the film was terminated. To date, Celluloid Dreams has sold this title to some twenty territories worldwide although the search is still on for a Gallic distributor.
Ozpetek said he was “more than embarassed to have won so many awards”, adding that the emotional impact this latest film of his continues to have on audiences everywhere was a source of pleasure and surprise for him. He spoke about his next project, scheduled to be made in and around Naples. For the moment, however, he assured those present that he is focusing his energy on promoting Facing Windows on the international market.

The International Meetings have a well-deserved reputation for discovering original films and they run parallel with the Parisian festival until 13 July. The competitive programme includes 15 fiction features plus 7 documentaries, many of which European co-producitons like the Danish/British Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Lone Scherfig, the Franco-Belgian Toutes ces belles promesses by Jean-Paul Civeyrac and the Serbo-Croatian-Bulgarian Terre en friche by Ljubisa Samardzic. Other titles include Aprimi il cuore by Italy’s Giada Colagrande, Frères, a French film by Xavier Choudens, Elle est des nôtres by Siegfried Alnoy and HélèneMarini’s Un goût de sel

(Translated from French)