Nihat, an introverted employee in a hospital cafeteria, is confused by Ayşe, a mysterious woman who just started working there as a dishwasher. Her obvious seductive approaches embarrass Nihat and make him nervous at the same time. Despite the rumors about her husband having been sentenced to many years in jail, Nihat reluctantly accepts Ayşe’s invitation to dinner at her house. This is the beginning of a strange and dangerous liaison. When Nihat discovers a picture of the woman’s husband and realizes that he looks astoundingly like him, the relation becomes even more toxic. Director’s statement Taking over someone else’s personality has been a philosophical dilemma for ages. Being someone else is generally treated as a question of moral values and consequently related to social aspects that can be rather vitriolic. Who wants to be someone else, why, and how? We are not talking here about a personal disorder or a schizophrenic personality but the simple, or perhaps complex decision to take over someone else’s identity. To be ‘the other’ in fact means coming very close to the brink. Changing identity is not just a matter of a person’s will but ironically, the fate of ‘the other’ as well: it is quite a problematic issue. When can a person really turn into the other? What price will he have to pay? These issues have always been part of my baggage: they have occasionally emerged in my novels and appear in this film in rather accidental fashion. |