Turkish filmmaker Selman Nacar at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where premiered his second feature, the thriller drama 'Hesitation Wound', which is screening in World Cinema segment of 23rd Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival on October 28 and 29.
28 Oct 2023
Selman Nacar’s sophomore Hesitation Wound is a day in the life of a criminal lawyer who’s also a daughter. It treads the grey areas skillfully, between truth and lies, ambition and renunciation. In the well-crafted, compelling, suspenseful drama, the hyper-committed Canan (Tülin Özen) straddles the personal and the professional, like a ping pong ball, trying to be on top of either situation, by her comatose mother’s side at the hospital (on life support but her organs are healthy) and her murder-suspect client at the prison and courthouse. In both spheres, she has to make some hard decisions, a moral choice that will impact others’ lives, as she stands on the threshold between a breakthrough or breakdown. Spatially expansive, temporally compressed, Nacar’s films close in on, and build the tension for, the protagonists.
The Venice (Orizzonti)-premiered Hesitation Wound recently won the top Feature Film Competition prize at 19th Zurich Film Festival. “Getting the Golden Eye at Zurich Film Festival was a big honour, especially from a jury that I appreciate,” says the Istanbul-based director. With his Turkish drama, Nacar is visiting India with a film for the first time, in the World Cinema segment at the 23rd Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, this weekend, October 28-29. Although his debut film Between Two Dawns (2021) won the Best International Film award at 20th Pune International Film Festival last year. He’s “excited to see India and Indian audiences’ reaction. I see many similarities in both Indian and Turkish cultures, and I hope audience will deeply feel the film,” says Nacar, 33. The film is also travelling to Tallinn, Stockholm, Free Zone, Arras, among other festivals. Nacar speaks about his new film, the similarity in law and filmmaking, and moral dilemmas at the centre of his work.
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