我想展示年輕人在生活中必須面對的問題。 司南所處的所有情況都來自今天生活在土耳其的年輕人的經曆。與警察的電話交談來自我親眼目睹的事情。這部電影講述了一個想成為文學教師的人所面臨的事情,最終他不得不在警察局工作。但 司南對警察的回應也有一部分是為了炫耀,另一部分是對朋友的同情。與其說他同意朋友的觀點,不如說他隻是不想冒犯他。

司南總以一種居高臨下的方式說的大部分話,都是他試圖保護自己;他通過暗示自己比其他人優越來強調自己的成年和重要性。我們中的許多人年輕時都會這樣做。許多年前我在倫敦的時候,我在一家Wimpy酒吧工作,我會和沒有受過良好教育的經理交談,以至于他聽不懂我的話;這是我試圖讓他尊重我的方式。在那個年齡,談話往往與表達現實無關;這是關于獲得相對于某人的優勢。所以你可能會說這是一部政治電影,因為它反映了當今土耳其的各個方面,但這實際上隻是背景。對我來說,任何政治因素都是因為它們照亮了人物。因此,雖然與伊瑪目的長時間對話可能會說明當前對宗教的态度,但這更多地與錫南試圖從伊瑪目那裡得到一些東西有關。這也表明,盡管他自己經常受到批評,但他不會允許别人說任何反對他父親的話。他就像他的母親,對丈夫有自己的抱怨,但不會讓自己在這個方向上走得太遠。

I wanted to show what young people have to deal with in their lives. All the situations in which Sinan finds himself were taken from the experiences of young people living in Turkey today. The phone conversation with the policeman came from something I myself witnessed. The film is about the sort of things faced by someone who wants to become a teacher of literature, and many such people end up having to take jobs in the police. But Sinan's response to the policeman is also partly about showing off, and partly an expression of sympathy for a friend. It's not so much that he agrees with his friend's sentiments; he just doesn't want to offend him. Much of what Sinan says, in his condescending way, is him trying to protect himself; he's asserting his adulthood, his importance, by implying he's superior to other people. Many of us do that when we're young. When I was in London many years ago, I worked at a Wimpy bar, and I would speak to the manager, who hadn't had a great education, in such a way that he couldn't understand me; it was my way of trying to make him respect me. Often, at that age, conversation has little to do with expressing reality; it's about getting an advantage over someone. So you might say it's a political film, since it reflects aspects of today's Turkey, but that's really just the background. For me, any political elements are there because they illuminate the characters. So, while the long conversation with the imams may say something about current attitudes to religion, it's more to do with Sinan trying to get something back from the imams. It also shows that despite his own frequent criticisms, he won't allow others to say anything against his father. He's like his mother, who has her own complaints about her husband but won't let Sinan go too far in that direction.

電影中的哲學——這很難,很棘手。人們可能會對這類東西過敏,他們可能會關掉電影。這部片子的問題是,會有太多的文學、太多的哲學,我有點害怕——我們必須确保一切都是可以接受的,因此角色會有其他類型的場景,這樣電影的哲學表達才能被接受。

Philosophy in a film - it's difficult, it's tricky. People may be allergic to that kind of thing - they may just switch off. The problem with the film was that there would be too much literature, too much philosophy and I was a bit scared about that - we had to ensure that everything would be acceptable, that there would be other kinds of scenes thanks to the characters, so that this aspect of the film would be acceptable.