(Özgü Namal and Tansu Biçer in Berlinale Golden Bear winner “Gelbe Briefe” (Yellow Letters))

By Michael Roddy

In awarding the Berlinale’s top Golden Bear prize on Saturday to the Turkish-German film “Gelbe Briefe” (Yellow Letters), German director Wim Wenders said he was certain its politically potent message that even people who are privileged and well connected can be brought down under authoritarian regimes would resonate with audiences worldwide.

“We saw your film as a terrifying premonition that looks into the near future that could happen possibly in our countries as well,” Wenders, president of the international jury, said on the stage of the Berlinale Palaste where the awards ceremony was held.

“It got under the skin of all of us who see the signs of despotism in their country or in their neighbourhood. This film will be understood worldwide, I promise you.”

Directed by İlker Çatak (The Teachers Lounge), who is German of Turkish descent, one of the film’s conceits is that it is played as if it takes place in Turkey, in Istanbul and Ankara, but was shot in Berlin and Hamburg — without any attempt made at disguise.

Çatak and other members of the film crew said at a press conference it would not have been a problem to shoot in Turkey, but doing it in Germany made the story more universal.

“I live in Germany, I have citizenship, and I felt like if I make a film about the circumstances over there (Turkey) …it should have to do with here as well,” Çatak said.

“We love pointing the fingers to others. And by we, I mean Germans, in order not to be confronted with the dirt in our own backyard…This film is also about a global issue, and not just a local one.”

The film starts with a play within a movie in which middle-aged actress Derya (Özgü Namal) is ending her opening night performance of a piece by her husband Aziz (Tansu Biçer) that is about the importance of resistance.

Although the audience applauds enthusiastically, Derya is sulking because a mobile phone went off during the performance in one of the front rows. The man who received the call — and did nothing to quiet his phone — was a government minister who has control of cultural matters and has attended the play to appear in a photo shoot with Derya afterwards. She refuses and leaves the theatre in a huff with Aziz.

The minister’s revenge is swift and brutal. The play’s run is cancelled and Derya, who as her character is developed in the film is shown to be anything but dogmatic, is pointedly turned down for a role in a replacement piece. Aziz, who is a university professor, receives what is known in Germany as a “yellow letter” informing him that because of views he has expressed on his social media accounts, deemed critical of the government, he and several of his activist professor colleagues are being suspended and face legal action.

In short order the happy and rather luxurious lifestyle the couple have been living with their daughter Ezgi (Leyla Smyrna Cabas) is on the rocks. They can no longer afford their plush pad in Istanbul — for which Berlin is the stand-in — and move in with Aziz’s mother in Hamburg — which is Ankara. Blocked from academic employment, Aziz is reduced to driving a cab.

It would be lovely to report that in the end justice prevails but, as in real life, what the characters do is adapt. Derya, who has been pursued from almost the outset by an agent who thinks she’d be a good fit for a new series on a state-run television station, finally succumbs to the agent’s pleadings — and finds she enjoys the work and her co-workers. Plus the pay is good.

Aziz links up with an old friend who runs an avant-garde theatre in Hamburg-Ankara and writes a new play to be produced there, with the main draw being a lead role for Derya which would require the popular actress to appear naked.

It is at this point that the new realities of Derya’s and Aziz’s lives come into conflict, and are resolved in a way that changes their relationship fundamentally.

“For me, it was very important to have a couple where the audience is divided, where one half of the audience feels for him and the other one feels for her,” Çatak said.

“So that was the challenge for me, as a director of this film, to have that balance where both of them are equally right, in a way.”