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The Hearts That Can't See the Sun Gunes Gormeyen Kalpler
TURKEY / 1999 / Turkish / Color / Video / 23 min Director, Photography, Editing: Hasan Karacadag Script, Sound: Hasan Karacadag, Imhan Karacadag Music: Chiwan Haco and Different Dimension Narration: Bitam Bekleriz Producer: Hasan Karacadag, Office Koda Source: Office Koda 4-1-8-302 Arai, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 165-0026 JAPAN Phone & Fax: 81-3-5345-5045 E-mail: ab8y-kud@asahi-net.or.jp		Hasan Karacadag Born in 1976 in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Began three-year military service in 1993. Started filmmaking in 1995. Entered the Film Academy of the Turkish Film Directors' Association. In 1997 he finished coursework at the Academy. To date, has produced numerous shorts, documentaries, and PR films which have been acclaimed and awarded in Turkey. His works include: The Smell of My Father's Stockings (1995./Kurdish), The Song of People With AIDS (1997), Funerals and Weddings (1996) based on a true 'blood revenge' tragedy, Bushido Brother (1997), Gypsies in Turkey (1997), about the mixture of two cultures - Islamic and Romany.
While the western part of the nation enjoys a successful rate of development in supposedly multiracial Turkey, the southeast, where Kurdish people also live, has been left in poverty. And the current situation does not offer a glimpse of hope. This film uses imaginative images to re-present the circumstances surrounding these people who migrate to large cities like Istanbul and Ankara to escape poverty. At the same time the tragic fate of victimized children is put under light. Director's Statement You cannot hear the voices of the characters in this film. This is because the world, for a very long time, made no effort to hear the voices of these little children. Although southeastern Turkey is blessed with fertile soil, the people who live there are faced with unemployment and poverty. To escape the clutches of such poverty, they began immigration to the west of Turkey. But when they arrive in their new environs, they discover that differences in culture and language present a "wall" which itself brings about new problems. The street children are one of these. They grow up in a forgotten corner of society, haunting the roadsides, suffering in poverty, all the time cursing their fate. In the film, I used a sheep to symbolize "hope," the sea for "a yet unseen happiness," and sunlight for "a true happiness." Sunlight streams for the first time into the empty homes of these children who have left for the west in the hopes of finding a secure place to live. Why do they yearn for "a yet unseen happiness" that exists only somewhere in the distance? Is escape to the west the only true resolution? Wouldn't it have been better for them to pause a little longer to gather strength looking out upon their own land? Wouldn't they then have been able to see the sun (happiness)? The sun does not shine only in the west; it falls equally, filling all lands.
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