How much Istanbul is there in Hamburg?

Berlin as Ankara, Hamburg as Istanbul - even the trailer for İlker Çatak's new Berlinale film "Yellow Letters" makes it unmistakably clear that something is different here. "Of course, we could have shot the film at the original locations in Turkey, but then I would have felt like a tourist in my own story," says Director and Script Writer İlker Çatak. A clever move, as it soon turned out.

The origin of the Yellow Letters

Çatak first heard about the yellow letters when he visited friends at the theatre in Istanbul: "In the letters, they were told with outrageous reasons that they were no longer allowed to come to work. The subject then really got to me," says the Directors. However, it would take two more years (and two more films) before Çatak and his co-authors Ayda Çatak and Enis Kostepen set about researching the film and the writing process began.

Someone who has also been involved in the creation of the story since 2019: Executive Producer Ingo Fliess and his Munich-based company if...Productions. Çatak and Fliess have a long-standing collaboration and friendship - "Yellow Letters" is their third film together: "We were actually looking forward to making a small, quick film on the street in Turkey - the initiative came from our Turkish co-producer Enis Kostepen," says Fliess. But then the idea came up to send the film into exile ourselves, so to speak, and set it in Germany. This also made it clear that the dimensions of the production would change and that the majority of the financing would come from Germany. "Suddenly we were able to tell stories where we know our way around again," says Ingo Fliess.

The story

The film focuses on the celebrated artist couple Derya and Aziz from Ankara. They lead a full life with their 13-year-old daughter Ezgi - until an incident at the premiere of their new theatre play changes everything. Overnight, they are targeted by the state and lose their job and their home. They move to Istanbul, where they stay with Aziz's mother for the time being. While Aziz ekes out a living with odd jobs and sticks to his convictions, Derya searches for a way out that will make her financially independent but put her moral compass to the test.

The film locations

The first half of the film takes place in Berlin (Ankara in the film), then the action switches to Hamburg (Istanbul). The film deals with this information quite openly. Licence plates are not disguised and iconic buildings are recognisable as such. The boundaries between the cities become blurred: "When I went to the short film festival in Hamburg for the first time with my wife Ayda in 2008, we were both immediately in love with the film. She had just moved to Berlin from Istanbul and I had gone to school in Istanbul. And now we were standing here at the harbour in Hamburg and felt like we were standing on the Bosphorus," says Çatak.

Yellow Letters" was filmed at numerous locations in Hamburg - including the harbour, Steindamm, Heiligengeistfeld and the Schanzenviertel. The family's flat in Hamburg, on the other hand, was filmed in the studio at Cinegate. This allowed for greater flexibility, especially as several young actors were involved in the scenes. "We worked closely with the Hamburg authorities to obtain permits for shooting. A big thank you at this point to Carsten Brosda - where else can you just call the Senator for Culture and ask for support?" says Executive Producer Fliess.

The main cast

Lead actor Tansu Biçer, who plays Director and family man Azis in the film, was a chance discovery by İlker Çatak. "I was just in Istanbul and saw him on stage - I knew immediately: that's him!" Working with leading actress Özgü Namal, on the other hand, was a long-cherished dream. He first saw her on a theatre stage at the age of 15 and has been a big fan ever since. In Turkey, she is a superstar who doesn't actually have to go to auditions any more - but she made an exception for "Yellow Letters".