Director portrays world through children’s eyes

ANTALYA

Director Seyfettin Tokmak, whose film "The Rabbit Empire" won seven awards at the 62nd Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, said he is working on a new project that will once again tell a story through the eyes of a child.

Tokmak’s film, which depicts a child’s struggle for life, was named Best Film in the festival’s National Feature Film Competition, while Tokmak himself received the Best Director award.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Tokmak said that representing childhood in cinema adds a special value to storytelling. “After realizing that children in films create a symbolic world and that they are important figures who reflect and define society, I started writing stories about them,” he said.

“I have been part of volunteer projects with migrant children and even at a juvenile detention center in Istanbul, where I taught short filmmaking for three years. We made many short films, and it made me very happy, because childhood is the most important period of life,” he added.

Tokmak, who began a PhD in London on “childhood in cinema” and conducted comparative studies on British and Iranian cinema, said he finds children’s worlds and imaginations captivating.

“I don’t see my own childhood as different from theirs,” he said. “The only difference between me and the children in prison was that I knew my way home, while they had forgotten it. For them, that home, meaning parents, was critical.”

He noted that he continues to work on the representation of childhood in cinema. “I’m developing a new project about the death of childhood,” he said. “It’s still in the scriptwriting stage.”

"The Rabbit Empire" swept the Golden Orange with seven awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Art Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematographer, the Film-Yön Best Director Award and the Sungu Çapan Film Critics’ Jury Special Award.