"The Visitor" Fipresci Member Review

‘The Visitor’ (‘Misafir’): Istanbul Review

Montreal Awarded 'The Visitor' Will Be Competing This Time In Haifa

Director Mehmet Eryilmaz talks about The Visitor, his film in Montreal World Competition

Award-winning movie ‘The Visitor’ to represent Turkey in Haifa

One of the lead actor of "the visitor" Ersin Umut Güler won the best actor prize from 3.international bosphorus film festival

Atlanta Film
Director’s Note

As an independent filmmaker and seasoned producer-director, I attach more importance to the concept of a filmmaking vision than specifically to a producer’s view.

Seven years ago I described my previous film, Hazan Mevsimi (A Fairground Attraction), as a story of the socially disconnected. In a sense, this is also true of my new film, The Visitor. However, what I would add to give a more rounded picture of the film is the idea of hope built on tragedy, as referred to by Hungarian director, Béla Tarr.

While the universal theme of mother-daughter relationships lies at the centre of the The Visitor, I also deal with the widespread problem of incest as a subtext. I should make the point that my approach to filmmaking is no different from my approach to life. That is to say, if cinema is not based on humanity, and does not have at its core humanity and the unfathomable corridors of the human soul, then it amounts at best to a piece of celluloid or video tape.

Art, for me, is a personal adventure; and if it must incorporate a social aspect, this could be at most to help in some small way to liberate audience perceptions from conventional patterns and to open up new horizons. I see the idea of new horizons as having many dimensions. It covers all the values that make us human, all doors free of dogma, and at the same time as a spiritual meaning the Sanskrit mantra, ‘Om mani padme hum’. In short, opening up new horizons could be defined as contributing to the process of a person genuinely knowing him/herself.

Atlanta Film is the successor to Çan Film, a production company founded 25 years ago. Besides taking on various commercial visual projects, the company has so far produced 10 documentaries by Mehmet Eryılmaz, in addition to three dramatic documentaries and two full-length fiction films.