My Marlon and Brando

Ayça is a Turkish actress and she lives in Istanbul. On a film set in the West of Turkey, she meets Hama Ali, a Kurdish actor. The two fall in love while shooting a film. After the shoot, Ayça returns to Istanbul and Hama has to go back to his home, Süleymaniye in northern Iraq . Ayça and Hama continue their relationship on the telephone and via letters, while America prepares to attack Iraq. The post often doesn’t work and the phone lines in Iraq are usually cut off. From time to time, Ayça receives a declaration of love from her lover on video. Ayça can no longer bear the distance between them and decides to travel to northern Iraq. But getting into a country at war turns out to be just as difficult as getting out.
The protagonists in the film are not actors who would quickly be cast for an average love story. My Marlon and Brando is a real story with and about real people. Ayça and Hama Ali are actors in their everyday lives, here they play themselves. In this way the film creates a tense balance between documentary and fiction. The love letters and video letters in the film are real, but Ayça is acting her own life. Result: a powerful and penetrating road movie in which a committed film maker approaches the world through a personal story.

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