Cagatay's short film "Birdie" in Oxford Film Festival!

In October 2019, Cagatay told GQMiddleEast "I’ve never told anyone about this by the way. Just my close friends know I’m going to shoot a film as a director. You are the first to know. I’m so excited. Just dreaming every day about it. Every moment.”

Soon after, there were several photos of Cagatay in Kirklareli which were believed to be part of him scouting the location for his film. At the time, the working title for the film was "Freedom Bird" but no further news was available. It was thought the project had been abandoned.

However, on February 15th, Oxford Film Festival announced its selections for 2021, and the Cagatay Ulusoy written and directed film "Birdie" is in the lineup for the short film category. At 20 minutes, it is "The story of a lonely fisherman whose relationship with life, nature and human being is fair. For him, life is about living with a full belly until a goldfinch hits his window. Will his relationship with the goldfinch change the fate of the fisherman?". 

The film stars veteran actor Turgay Tanulku, who is also Cagatay's co-star in the upcoming #PaperLives, which will be on Netflix on March 12.

Filmmaking has been a long term dream for Cagatay, and to not only bring it to fruition, but to do it with his younger brother Atalay as Assistant Director is an incredible foray into the field. 

The movie will be available for virtual viewing April 1 - April 29 and only available to viewers in USA. You can pre-order tickets here.

We came to learn that the movie was also selected at the Montecatini International Short Film Festival in October 2020 and at the Santa Monica Film Festival in November 2020. Getting into the festival circuit is a great achievement for independent filmmaker, and it already looks like a promising start for Cagatay.

Here are some photos of Cagatay from the time of filming, collected from various sources.​

Article (c) CUNA
Updated: February 19, 2021