Author and film producer bringing eastern magic to life

Öztürk has already made quite a name for herself through writing novels and directing documentary films. Her talents are diverse and when asked by the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review which she preferred Ğ writing or producing documentary films, Öztürk said: "While writing you can move with a feeling of endless freedom. You are you. But in documentary filmmaking there is the matter of historical information that others have created and working with a crew that others have used. The skepticism that I feel about the information and the responsibility I feel toward what I have said makes me retreat to an unbelievable degree. So the feeling of freedom that writing a book gives me suits me very well. "However, if it is a documentary that has reached the filming stage I feel better. I go into a trance, especially if the location of the shooting is outside of the metropolitan areas. I put these two feelings together in cinema film."

Öztürk’s journey of life
Handan Öztürk was born in Tunceli. She dropped out of school at Eskişehir Economic and Commercial Sciences Academy because she joined student movements and worked in factories and shantytowns, depending on the moment’s political struggles. Later she graduated from Istanbul University’s Press and Publication School, which she entered in 1986. It was during this period that she wrote articles for various magazines and newspapers.

After finishing university she worked in Switzerland as a program producer and presenter for Bern Radio Forderband. She also took classes in directing and cinema at various institutions. Returning home later, she wrote her first novel, "Yalniz Bebekler" (Lonesome Babies) and shot her first documentary film, "Faytonlari" (Phaetons). She had begun a life of writing and directing.

Author and film director, in her novels she speaks of strong, atypical women who struggle and shatter traditions. She discusses heroines who have embarked on journeys of initiation to free their bodies and consciences and bravely surmount trauma caused by being squeezed between the East and West. She brings to life the rich spiritual traditions of the East, the lands of legends and tales and ancient times. These she places alongside the harsh reality of those same lands and knits together the events she has set in motion. Öztürk’s writing is a mixture of fantasy and present day reality.

The writer accepts that her works enter both the realms of the fantastic and the realistic. "Yes. I enjoy bringing the two points together and harvesting them in the storms of my own inner world. I think that it has a little to do with the geography of the area where I lived and was nourished. In countries like ours, dark reality, fantasy, secularism and spiritualism all pass within, like two-headed children whose bodies have been created together," she said.

"For example, we may find out from a serious medical expert that he believes in something unconventional. Going straight to eastern Anatolia, flirting and articulating these two points take on unbelievable dimensions. It creates unbelievable life stories and colors. I consciously unite these two difficult points, which strike me," she said.

Here is a woman who has had many different experiences. "I have to think freely right to the end and I have to destroy my classic chance endlessly ... Learning is freedom and if told, it becomes documentary. If you have knowledge, being informed increases ignorance and shakes up true concepts over time. To understand what is simple and plain about life and the chaos in which we live, the unsuccessful strategies of centuries have taught us that it would be better to look naively with the purity and heart of a child."

Öztürk would not stint on bluntness if she spoke to a young woman thinking about getting into documentary films. "She should think again. Because I say that selecting this form of living means leaving the shining streets of the documentary to walk on a narrow path on the edge of a precipice. And it’s necessary to be skeptical about information and dogma. "In countries like ours, where the documentary is not considered important, what a pity it is that there is very little difference between making a documentary and choosing a life of suffering."Â

Asked what her future projects were, Öztürk said her film, "My and Roz’s Autumn" will be in theaters May 1 and she is already in the throes of preparing another film, named "Ojeli."

"Ojeli is a film connected with women and the sexuality of women. My purpose is actually to go back to how the forms of female sexuality are experienced and perceived. Because the pain felt by women of the perception of a woman and her sexuality is one of the basic concerns of my heart and brain," she said. "In addition, I am making notes for my fifth novel. It is like a continuation of "Arumi’s Compas"’É The female heroine in "Arumi’s Compass" is based on the sexualities in Asiatic culture. I am aiming at have my heroine travel in Islamic countries in this book and question Islamic sexuality," she said.

Novels

"The Naked Women of the East"

Handan Öztürk’s novel tells the story of women who fight to change the current situation in Mesopotamia, where traditional constraints, killings, deaths, suicides, militarist pressures and war prevail and where death has turned into amusement, as well as the story of other women who submit to this vicious circle and commit mass suicide. The novel questions the oppression of Kurdish women and the anguish they experience.

"Lonesome Babies"

Pagan beliefs continued in eighth century Cappadocia where four great Christian fathers laid down the foundations of Christianity’s doctrine and created the forms of Christian rituals. The Christian missionaries who took advantage of the mesmerizing fairy chimneys and carved land worked to turn Asia Minor’s mysterious geography into educational and teaching campuses.

Purple Rape

The stories of three different violations are told in relationship to each other.

First the rape of a city, Istanbul, occupied by the British, the French and the Italians, the second, the rape of a young girl, and the third, the rape of a patriot by means of physical torture.



"Arumi’s Compass"

Meryem comes from a family in an old, well-known city of Mesopotamia which is squeezed between Eastern and Western cultures. She rejects the traditional judgments of motherhood and womanhood imposed on her and, leaving everything she owns, she sets out on a long journey of initiation.



"My and Roz’s Autumn"

For many years the villagers have struggled under the leadership of journalist, Metin, to obstruct the building of the Ilisu Dam. Once the dam is finished, a piece of Turkey’s rich ancient history, the village of Hasankeyf in eastern Turkey, will be inundated. But as a result of an environment of corruption and self interest, the villagers are left staring defeat and inevitable migration in the face. This defeat is rendered even more tragic by the village’s cultural and historical richness which resemble a museum of antiquity.

Documentarıes

"Mothen goddesses of Anatolia "

This documentary examines the mother goddesses of Anatolia who have played an important role in the formation and development of Western culture, especially in ancient Greece. It describes how the goddess cult, which emerged as an idol starting from Catalhoyuk, a matriarchal society, was transformed into Kubaba, Kybele and especially the Greek deities Artemis and Apollo in the cultural process.



Magic of Harem

The film objectively analyzes the life of women in Ottoman palaces, a subject of worldwide fascination. It explains how the harem, which was originally established by sultans as a family model, changed and deteriorated over the course of time.



"Turkish Dances"

The documentary traces the development and the formation of Turkish dances, which are grouped in various vivid branches such as folk dances, religious dances and Ottoman court dances in the course of history and parallel to the social and cultural development of the country.



"Mahmud Kashgari and the history of Turkish language

It describes the history and the richness of the Turkish language in parallel to the life story of the renowned 11th century Turkic linguist and scholar Mahmud Kashgari.



"Galata: An eastern tale"

With the perspective of Ottoman economic history, the documentary explains the Westernization movement that began in the Ottoman Era with the transition stage from money brokers to banking as well as the formation of Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district in the background.



"Women behing walls - Turkey"

Handan Öztürk undertook the task of directing the Turkish section of this documentary about women that was produced in 13 different Islamic countries. The film tells the development process of the women’s movement in Turkey.

FILM

"My and Roz’s Autumn"

For many years the villagers have struggled under the leadership of journalist, Metin, to obstruct the building of the Ilisu Dam. Once the dam is finished, a piece of Turkey’s rich ancient history, the village of Hasankeyf, will be inundated. But as a result of an environment of corruption, the villagers are left staring defeat and inevitable migration in the face. This defeat is rendered even more tragic by the village’s cultural richness.