Cagatay Ulusoy is a man who not only dreams, but takes deliberate steps towards fulfilling those dreams. In October 2019 in an interview with GQ Middle East, Cagatay said “Just my close friends know I’m going to shoot a film as Director”, and by December of that year, the shooting for his short film “Birdie” had started.

Now playing at the Oxford Film Festival in Mississippi, scripted, directed and produced by Cagatay, Birdie is an obvious labor of love, aesthetically shot with minimal but well-placed dialogues.  Shorts are distinguished by the clarity and simplicity of its story being told, and Birdie delivers perfectly towards this goal. A synchronicity and an inner alignment with life’s core values, a reverence for mother nature and the yin yang of the universe is captured beautifully in a 20 minute film, which also serves as a reflection of the understated Cagatay his fans have come to love.

The Story​
In his 2020 feature article for Hello!, Cagatay shared two insights about his thought processes, that are captured in the story of Birdie. The first is “Whatever it is I need to learn to survive, I learnt it from the sea and the fish” and appropriately, the protagonist in his story is an elderly fisherman who leads a simple existence by himself in a sparsely populated part of the country. ​

Ensconced in a dilapidated shack by the river that is nestled in the reeds, Halit Amca’s life is sustained by his respectful relationship with nature. He only collects as much as he needs for his existence, either consuming his catch or bartering it for basic supplies from a local store.
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During a medical visit, he is told of the need for an expensive surgery and that the failure to have timely intervention might lead to an amputated leg. Resigned to his fate, he accepts that he may lose his leg, and in a poignant moment where he converses with his two legs, it is as though he is chatting with two beloved pets and consoling one for the loss of its life-long pair. 

Halit consents to the competition and, through some wonderful cinematic crescendo of birdsongs, the “Kus” triumphs for Halit and Mashallah. This leads to Halit being able to avail the much-needed surgery to save his leg.
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And this brings us to the second of Cagatay’s epiphanies that echoes in this story.

Just as Halit saves the bird’s broken wing, the bird saves Halit’s broken leg, and they heal each other in an exquisite way. There is indeed a give and take balance in nature, and in a world that we inhabit together, we are rewarded if we seek ways to co-exist in a respectful manner.

And Birdie is a story told simply about some of these fundamental wisdom in life. 

Performances
Veteran actor Turgay Tanulku is perfection as Halit, who captures a spectrum of emotions of a simple man at the juncture of a difficult life situation. We see his sad acceptance, but also his resilience as he continues with life, giving back in ways he can. He makes one question the age-old dilemma about our wants versus needs, and illustrates how basic our needs can be in a world that thrives on conspicuous consumption. We experience his heartfelt joy alongwith him when his love for the bird reflects in the bird’s love for him.

An Old Soul
As we shared on the first day of the film’s release, the shack used for Halit Amca is the same one Cagatay is found in for his guest appearance on Menajerimi Ara in September 2020.

In Birdie, the shack is quite dilapidated and ill-kempt, whereas in Menajerimi Ara it is a well-maintained retreat. It may very well be owned by Cagatay as he claims in his appearance - it is the place he comes to so he doesn’t ‘lose himself”. The old soul in him translates into his first story that he has presented to the world, and it is as much an ode to his guiding principles in living an exploratory but meaningful life as it is to old traditions of his land. 

We are very excited to support the growth of this movie and hope it gets accepted into other major film festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, Toronto, Telluride and more. As it is, this is Birdie’s third appearance at a festival with the first two being at the Montecatini International Short Film Festival in October 2020 and Santa Monica International Film Festival in November 2020. Birdie’s appearance at Oxford marks a regional premiere for the film.
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Confirmed by Indie filmmakers in Hollywood, without the producer’s authorization, we cannot really share photos and videos of the movie, but we do have permission from the organizers of the Oxford Film Festival to share some screenshots. Here is a short video with highlights from the movie, where one can get an idea of the splendor of Cagatay’s cinematic eye.

​As he says in his interview with GQ Turkey released today, “I am still on the journey, the process continues for me with a lot of learning.”

Your fans await more.

Article copyright (c) CUNA & mh Musings

“The best way to make children good is to make them happy.”
-Oscar Wilde
 
Children are our future. We always say this but which children do we mean when we say this? Our own children or children in general? Do we fail to remember that if we care about the future we need to start caring more about children in general? For instance, what about the children who have no homes, no parents, who are left to survive on their own?
 
Paper Lives
Cagatay Ulusoy’s new movie on Netflix called Paper Lives made me think about this general problem in my country, Turkey. However I know that many other countries including Western countries struggle with this. We fail to protect kids. Even in their homes a lot of kids are abused, beaten, treated badly and suffer as the victim or the witness of domestic abuse. Then there are kids who think even these kids are lucky because they have to survive on the streets. They are the kids who have fallen between the cracks. They weren’t lucky enough to get protection from the government’s institutions or somehow they chose to turn their backs to the system for their own reasons.

by mh musings

A look into the life story of Mehmet, a child who could never resolve his past as his future hung in the balance.

Spoiler Alert: If you wish to read a spoiler-free review of the movie, go here. This post delves deeper into the character of Mehmet, so beautifully brought to life by Cagatay Ulusoy

None of us came out with dry eyes after watching Paper Lives. Cagatay's soulful depiction of Mehmet is so beautifully done, capturing such a broad range of emotions, that it makes us want to go back again and again and, like him, search for the innocence of his childhood for him just so we can protect him for all that he endured in life. 

Mehmet is no ordinary man. He didn't choose to be a part of an abusive household, and he didn't choose to be parted from his beloved mother. He didn't choose to be thrown out in the midst of a crusted neighborhood where survival instincts can rob people of their humanity. We see this in the group of trash collectors who beat up Mehmet before his last stint in the hospital. We only know that his mother put him in the cart, but we are not shown his history of how he eventually comes under the care of Tahsin Baba. What traumas did he live until we meet him in the present day?

By looking at visual and aural clues provided throughout the movie, we wanted to re-construct the life Mehmet lived and why his mental health became so fragile towards the end.

Scars & Physical Health
We are introduced to Mehmet's debilitating cough when Gonzi takes him to the hospital after his evening out in the rain. We see that he has a prominent scar on his nose, most likely from a brawl or a street fight to defend himself.

As he is waiting in the waiting room, we see his placid complexion, which can be indicative of lung issues as well as a failing kidney. He's a smoker, and we later come to learn that kids older than himself hurt him and abused him by forcing him to sniff glue, at the very least. Who knows what more he endured while he tried to find a home for himself. 

He takes off his shirt for the doctor, and we see a jagged scar on his back. The crude nature of the scar can suggest that one of his kidneys got farmed against his wishes, which leads him to his weak health today as his body puts undue strain on his remaining kidney. We are also shown a brief glance of bloody urine, confirming the failing state of his kidney.​

When we first meet Ali, he is bruised and battered. Through Mehmet's later flashbacks, we realize that he was beaten repeatedly and brutally by his stepfather, and his mother decides it is better to leave him in a garbage can than to run away with him and protect him.

He gets into another altercation with the street thugs in the Cihangir area, where his home used to be. Who knows how long his mind has been playing games on him and how many times he got beaten up in this manner elsewhere. Tahsin Baba may have provided them with work, but he is not shown to be around to provide physical protection at all times. 

Despite the heroic figure he cuts for the youngsters in his neighborhood, Mehmet is deeply scarred, mentally and physically, and lives with the conflict of needing to dream so he can survive, and retreating into his imaginary world so he can cope. ​

The Past Defines The Future
From the time Mehmet sees his 'mother' at the hospital and how every female role in his life embodies her, speaks to the depth of loss he feels without her. He wants to believe that all mothers love their children and that she abandons him for his own good, because she had no other way. That she needs to be saved and it was because of money that she couldn't go with him. As such, saving up so that he can save her becomes a vision that gives him hope. He cannot possibly acknowledge the question Tahsin Baba asks him, "What if his mother threw him out willingly? Why isn't she looking for him all over Istanbul?"

Showing up to the house with a wad of cash is with a sense of achievement that he has overcome so much and perhaps now can buy back time with his mother, and save his childhood. His need to resolve this childhood trauma is so great, that he is willing to endanger his life and forego his surgery if it means that he is able buy time with his mother.

In his soulful song, Muslum Gurses sings,

"To loves that remain unfinished
To my borrowed smile
To dying before getting to live life
I have an objection"
 
In addition to all the pains Mehmet absorbs, perhaps these words describe him the most. A life on the streets cost him his health but his soul died a long time ago. His bucket list contains frivolous dreams except the one about finding his mother. His abandonment leaves such a big hole that it remains an unfinished love story. He laughs and bickers with his brothers, but these are borrowed moments masking the hollow caverns within; a daily effort at a normalcy that seems forced. And the fact that he dies even before he could fully learn what living meant, is indeed very objectionable.

And these are the stories that should open questions in society about our family systems that get fractured by toxic patriarchy, or irresponsible maternal instincts. Questions about the responsibilities the greater society has in providing security to children like Mehmet who did not choose this life of squalor nor was he born into it. How do we care for them?

Towards the end, Gonzi says, "We tried to build our lives with what other people threw away." Not only did they try to find their treasures in the trash of other people's lives, some of them were what other people threw away. ​

Article (c) CUNA & mh musings

All photos either belong to their respective owners or are property of Netflix. No copyright infringement is intended. Please ask for permission before reprints.

A spoiler-free review by mh-musings

Plot
The story revolves around Mehmet, the manager of a local waste warehouse, who is gravely ill and in the need of a kidney transplant. He is loved and revered by all the street kids and waste collectors in their ‘zone’, and they are all under the protection of Tahsin Baba, an elderly gentleman who has been their mentor within the grime and squalor of their rundown neighborhood. A host of homeless children and young men, who have obviously grown up on the streets, make up the army of garbage collectors, who get paid for the pounds of trash they deposit at the warehouse. Mehmet has gone from being feet on the street to managing the warehouse, presumably because his illness gets exacerbated through the physical exertion of pulling such heavy weights on uneven streets, often in inclement weather. He still sometimes enjoys going out to collect the trash, visiting old haunts along the way.

One evening, his best friend Gonzi (aka Gonzalez) veers into a zone patronized by a different group of rag tag, brutish trash collectors, but he is able to get away with glee. After his trash is weighed along with the rest of the local troupes’ stash, everyone is paid their share and sent home. Alone, Mehmet investigates scuffling noises coming from Gonzi’s cart, and a little boy drops out. He is Ali, a battered young boy frequently beaten by his stepfather, and his mother has put him in the cart to save him from the brutality. Mehmet is immediately drawn to him and takes him under his wing, with promises to reunite him with his mother. As he undertakes this journey, Mehmet is confronted by the truths of his own traumatic childhood that forces him to accept an agonized destiny.

Review
For those of us seduced by the art of Turkish storytelling, Paper Lives is the first Netflix Turkish original movie that weaves in the human side of the Turkish strength of family bonds, whether it is shown through the power of a mother’s love in absentia or through the ways these abandoned children bond together to create a sense of family. The social hierarchy is displayed through the reverence with which everyone refers to each other. Mehmet is ‘abi’ to most and well known in the neighborhood, Tahsin Baba remains the spiritual and moral mentor to all. The characters blend well into the tapestry woven for their lives, speaking in profanity laden street slang.

​The neighborhood is a personality in and of itself, with a sense of abandonment embedded in the neglect of the grim buildings, rife with graffiti and dilapidated fixtures. It is unlike the expansive, imposing vistas we see in the usual dizi fare, and almost depicts the underbelly of the city that wishes to be known but remain ignored in mainstream media.
 
Masterfully rising above the danger of being overwhelmed with the visual onslaught of the unexpected, what triumphs is the rich dialogue and delivery from a talented cast, enhanced by a subtly detailed cinematography which makes the mundane be full of meaning. The cinematic experience in its entirety invites an introspection about how our choices, or lack thereof, shape our destiny while scarring the innocence of childhood, often beyond redemption.

​One of the most poignant dialogues is delivered at a dinner table where the troupe is gathered in celebration. After candles on the cake are blown, Mehmet asks the children what their wishes are, and unsurprisingly the top one is to find their mother, mirroring Mehmet’s own from his bucket list for life. One child mildly says his wish is to die. As silence falls around the table, he explains that his reason is so that his deceased mother will still recognize him when they reunite in the afterlife.

From having a bucket list that also includes riding in a convertible in addition to uniting with his mother, to teetering on the verge of collapse as Mehmet waits for a kidney transplant, the power of the story of these abandoned children is captured beautifully in the song “Itirazim Var” by Muslum Gurses that plays on the radio when Mehmet is returning from his first stint at the hospital during the opening credits:

“I have an objection to my cruel destiny
I have an objection to this endless agony
To the fickle finger of fate
To the blows dealt by life
To every single trouble
I have an objection
To loves that remain unfinished
To my borrowed smile
To dying before getting to live life
I have an objection”

The realism woven into the script, which explores and delivers such profound thoughts without much fanfare is the hallmark of great cinema. The story has a surprising twist at the end but it is perfectly done such that it encapsulates the entire narrative into a soulful patchwork that will invite a second look at each and every frame. The glory of a story and its characters are often not in the formulaic rags to riches story but in the ways we are allowed to unravel a character to understand the intricacies of his joys and sorrows, either through visual clues, the actors’ portrayal or the screenplay. All of this is beautifully done at the hands of artistes who are masters of their craft.

Performances

Cagatay Ulusoy, who is also a creative producer for the project, dons a new avatar for this movie, far from the polished heroes he has played thus far. This is a subject matter close to his heart as he had also worked on a short film on the homeless when in film school in Los Angeles a few years ago. The range of emotions he captures as Mehmet, from one who commands attention to one who remains deeply unfulfilled, is portrayed so artfully that it is easy to join him on his physical, emotional and spiritual journey throughout the movie. This is yet another transformational role delivered by Cagatay, last seen on the screens as larger than life superhero in Netflix’s The Protector. He keeps reinventing himself with each of his projects, and Paper Lives is merely the latest in the bleeding edge of his multitude of talents.

Young Emir Ali Dogrul shows his promise as an actor in his depiction of a traumatized child whose eyes still fill with wonder from the joy of seeing a chocolate cake with glowing candles. He is delightful as Ali.

Having never watched Ersin Arici previously, his turn as Gonzalez is incredibly affecting and perfect, providing the backbone to the fluidity of the story in the most meaningful way. The way Gonzi and Mehmet are bonded within their adopted family is understatedly exquisite.

Veteran actor Turgay Tanulku as Tahsin Baba doesn’t have a lot of screen time but what he brings is the necessary gravitas of a wise old man who has learnt the realities of life, and has long since lost the desire to have others conform to his ways. A social activist in real life who has supported juvenile rehabilitation for decades, Mr. Tanulku does full justice to a memorable character who absorbs the sorrows of his wards and attempts to allow them to find some charm and meaning in their destitute lives.

Filmmaking
Paper Lives is directed by the adept hands of Can Ulkay, who has only turned to this craft as late as 2017 and yet his natural talents for building a frame with meticulous attention to detail and a sense of grandiose visual aesthetic is evident in each and every project. One of his very first projects, Ayla: The Daughter of War, was the Turkish entry for the Academy Awards in 2018, and he has only bettered his craft in Paper Lives. From the expansive, torn battlefields of South Korea in Ayla to the myopic world of the neighborhood around a street named Mucadele Cikmazi in Paper Lives, Mr. Ulkay is simply masterful. The movie originally titled Struggle Alley (“Mucadele Cikmazi”) was only recently retitled to Paper Lives (Kagittan Hayatlar).

Mr. Ulkay’s 2018 film Muslum was a biopic on Turkish folk singer Muslum Gurses, whose song features in the opening credits of Paper Lives, mentioned above. It is these details, subtle individually but magnificent in its entirety, that make the production one to remember. The viewing is enhanced by the rich script by Ercan Mehmet Erdem, best known for his work on the gritty police show Behzat C., and what the audience gets is a multidimensional cinematic experience that leaves us with questions posed within a slice of Turkish life, but that really transcends all borders.

Author’s remarks
At a little over two hours, Paper Lives offers a tight narrative that cover a lot of ground if you are looking for it. From the physical characters to the visual and the insinuated, it is an unexpected exploration of a very male perspective of abandonment and the castles built in the sky to overcome the resulting voids. There is only one major female actor, Selen Ozturk, who plays multiple faces of a woman and it is an interesting detail that underlines the power of a mother in our lives, and how she can define the shape of all other women in a man’s life.
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I will not give away any other spoilers for the movie but invite you to give it a watch. Even if you do not have any history with Turkish drama, you will appreciate the social thought experiments launched through the narrative and will come to understand why the expressive Turkish male characters resonate so strongly with a globally thriving, predominantly female audience for the fare. Here is the trailer for those of you who might not have seen it yet:

Article copyright North America Ten, CUNA & mh.
The article first appeared on our parent site: ​https://www.northamericaten.com/netflix-paper-lives-review/www.northamericaten.com/netflix-paper-lives-review/

After much anticipation by fans, the trailer for Paper Lives has been released, and it looks amazing. The movie will stream on Netflix on March 12, 2021.

With the soulful acting from the veritable Cagatay Ulusoy, paired with the strength of script and the aesthecism director Can Ulkay imbibes in each and every screen, this promises to be a heart-touching story.

This will be the second Netflix original Turkish movie, and Netflix's second collaboration with production house O3 Medya/ OGM Pictures. Most of the Turkish Netflix originals thus far have been a single or multi-season series. One earlier film, Leyla Everlasting, had middling response as it is far removed from the typical Turkish fare focusing on social issues of family, love, brotherhood and more.

The lead actor in Paper Lives Cagatay was also the lead actor in the first Netflix original Turkish series The Protector and, once again, he leads the charge with the first movie focused on a very Turkish story, with both productions backed by Onur Guvenatam's companies - O3 Medya for The Protector, and OGM Pictures for Paper Lives.

Fans are awaiting excitedly for the debut of the movie, which is not only a visual treat, but also addresses deep social issues for the homeless and how many of them can end up that way.  In 2016, there were reports of Cagatay producing a short-film called Home, that focused on the homeless in Los Angeles. Clearly this is a subject that he has thought deeply about and to be able bring this movie to the screens seems it is a labor of love as much as it is a creative outlet.

With millions of Cagatay fans across the globe, we expect this movie project to be just as successful as The Protector proved to be, which not only had more than 10 million views in its first four weeks of the first season, but also made it in the WSJ top 10 most streamed international series as reported by Deadline Hollywood.

Wishing luck to everyone on the team!

​Article (c) CUNA

Check out these US news outlets for coverage on Paper Lives:

Hidden Remote: 5 new Netflix Movies to Watch in March 2021
Screen Realm: ‘Paper Lives’ Trailer: Raising a Homeless Child in Turkish Netflix Film
PopSugar: Clear Your Schedule For The 11 New Netflix Movies Premiering In March