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The Princess Spring

Bahar gives up everything to find herself back. She ends up being helped by Dilek, a transsexual...

synopsis

Istanbul. Bahar (“Spring”, 35) has formed a brilliant duo of architects with her husband Alper. But the children arrived sooner than she thought and, despite her own expectations, she could not cope with career and motherhood. So, encouraged by Alper, she withdrew, for the children’s sake, yet with frustration. But when she realises that Alper somehow planned the children and her withdrawal, she feels deeply betrayed and goes crazy: she decides to divorce and to refuse the children’s custody, to find back her identity as a woman. She first lets herself go at a bachelorette party, where princessdressed women get wild, drink and do drugs, and which leads her to meet Dilek (35), a transsexual. She accepts to pretend to be Dilek’s wife to help her obtaining her dying father’s heritage, in a village in South-East Turkey. They both embark on a journey that will help Bahar to look for the strength to conceive her own way of being a woman and a mother.

Director’statement

As a Turkish/French duo, after two features in Pakistan and Japan, we had to focus on Turkey, at a crucial moment in its history. With the current political change in the background, we chose to portray a woman who must fight in order not to drown. Bahar belongs to a social class scarcely represented in Turkish Cinema, the “White Turks”, born to the 68ers, mostly over-educated, apolitical, atheist, rich, but lost and frustrated. Our film is a quest for identity, a journey to redemption. It is a characterdriven story that breaks all ties in order to act freely: Bahar must find her own way to be a woman. Indeed in Turkey, women, targeted by a schizophrenic society, lose their balance: they should be strong and independent, but still bow to expanding conservatism and deny their femininity. But in Istanbul, we have met Dilek, a transsexual who turned out to be a very balanced and self-confident individual. This is why we want Bahar to get to know her: from the relationship they will build with each other, we would like to bring to light the struggle people must go through in Turkey to define their identities. And we hope that The Princess Spring’s audience will join their quest, whatever their gender or country is.

TFL PROGRAMME:
ScriptLab 2015
Discover more details here:
Download
PDF
TFL Catalogue 2015

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