It’s the late 1990s, and political polarisation in Turkey is more prominent than ever. The tensions between secular and religious Turks are becoming ever-present. Devout Muslims are ostracised, and religious dormitories, or yurts, are regularly raided by soldiers. Fourteen-year-old Ahmet is devastated when his newly religious father forces him to abandon the comfort of his middle-class lifestyle and sends him to one of those dormitories to study Islam. Recently converted, his father sees it as the righteous path for his son, and an opportunity for redemption for himself. For Ahmet, it’s a nightmare, as he is forced to navigate family expectations, his religious obligations and the childhood to which he so desperately clings.

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The story of a father who discovers religion and his son who pays the price: this is the focus of Dormitory [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Nehir Tuna
scheda film], a coming-of-age tale that marks the feature debut by Nehir Tuna. It aims to explore a young boy’s loss of innocence as he tries to appease his father’s expectations for his future and his desire for autonomy. Tuna, who has already directed seven acclaimed short films, combines social commentary and an original visual aesthetic while tackling stories about Turkey’s complex present-day issues, be it homosexuality or conservatism.

Dormitory is currently in post-production, and in the lead roles, Ahmet is portrayed by Doğa Karakaş, while Tansu Biçer plays the father. The rest of the cast includes Can Bartu Aslan, Ozan Çelik, Didem Ellialtı and Orhan Güner. French cinematographer Florent Herry, known for his collaboration with Reha Erdem, is lensing the film, while the music has been composed by German composer Enis Rotthoff, based in Berlin and Los Angeles; among his previous collaborations are films by Wolfgang Petersen and David Wnendt. The movie is being edited by Ayris Alptekin.

Dormitory is a Turkish-German-French co-production by Tanay Abbasoğlu (TN Yapım) and Dorothe Beinemeier (Red Balloon Film GmbH), in co-production with Thierry Lenouvel (Ciné-Sud Promotion). The film has been supported by the Sundance Grant for Production and Development, the Sundance Stars Collective Grant, the MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, the German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund and the Nipkow Programme/Berlin Film Residency, and it is a fiscally sponsored project of Film Independent (IFP).