Hesitation wound
Selman Nacar
Kuyu Film
On the day of the sentencing hearing for a murder suspect whom attorney NESRIN believes is innocent and has been defending for a long time, she comes face to face with her conscience.
NESRIN, is an idealistic criminal lawyer from a small town who spends her mornings in the courthouse and her evenings in the hospital by her mother’s side who lives connected to the respirator. The film is set on the day of the verdict hearing for a murder suspect whom Nesrin labored for for a long time. During the hearing, which was delayed due to the health condition of the judge's daughter, our trust in the defendant starts to shift positively. Yet, as soon as the hearing takes a break, Nesrin learns that the suspect had actually committed the crime, but had done so with a virtuous cause. Nesrin feels stuck in between feelings of law and justice. She intends to defend the suspect, but it’s apparent that the verdict will be against the defendant. The judge is forced to postpone the verdict announcement. At the hospital, Nesrin learns that she might help the judge’s daughter. Nesrin must make a moral choice that will affect the lives of her mother, the judge, and the accused.
Director’s biography: Selman Nacar / IMDb
SELMAN NACAR is a filmmaker, with an MFA of Film in Directing from Columbia University, New York City. He graduated from İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law in 2015, and from Faculty of Film in 2016. He is an alumnus of the Berlinale Talent 2019, and the First Films First 2020. Selman is the founder of Kuyu Film, a production company that produced the films THE PILLAR OF SALT (2018) and BELONGING (2019), both of which have premiered at the Berlin Film Festival Forum Section.
Producer’s biography: Burak Çevik / IMDb
BURAK ÇEVIK completed his undergraduate program in cinema at Istanbul Bilgi University. Then he started to give lectures at Istanbul Bilgi University. He directed and produced his first feature film in 2018 titled THE PILLAR OF SALT, which premiered in the Berlinale Forum in 2018. His second feature film titled Belonging premiered in the Berlinale Forum in 2019. He produced Selman Nacar’s first feature film titled BETWEEN TWO DAWNS and is working on Nacar’s second feature film, HESITATION WOUND.
Producer’s biography: Diloy Gulun / IMDb
In 2001, she started her producer career with Ahmet Uluçay’s award-winning Boats out of Watermelon Rinds. Following Asmali Konak: Hayat (2003), she founded Karma Films in 2003 and line produced several features including; Charlie’s Angels (dir. Elizabeth Banks, 2019), Inferno (dir. Ron Howard, 2016), Taken 2 (dir. Olivier Megaton, 2012), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (dir. Mira Nair, 2012), and The International (dir. Tom Tykwer, 2009). In 2018, she produced the Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winner Butterflies by Tolga Karaçelik. In 2019, she produced the digital TV series I, Bartu (Ben Bartu), and the feature films The Hunt (Av) by Emre Akay, and Between Two Dawns by Selman Nacar.
Where are we at?
Total estimated budget: 480.000 €
Finances pending: 230.000 €
Financing in place: 250.000 €
Production timeline
January - February 2022 : pre-production
March - April 2022: production
May - December 2022: post-production
Looking for at CineLink?
We believe that CineLink is a wonderful platform for our project as it will offer us great opportunities to get in contact with sales agencies, festival programmers, possible co-producers and post-production services such as; color, VFX etc. We are searching for financial partners and most importantly, we wish make valuable connections with festival planners and representatives of sales companies. For our project to become internationally visible, CineLink offers a wide range of opportunities and we believe that CineLink will take us a step ahead in our path for realizing our film.
Director’s statement
My interest in the concepts of crime-justice-morality is what has driven me to make this film. Hesitation Wound is a film that covers less than 24 hours, forms around a hearing, and focuses on Nesrin’s moral preferences which affect her personal and professional life. My main focus will be on the consequences of her process. I imagine a camera that roams through a small town's courtyard, its corridors, its courtroom; and hovers among lawyers, prosecutors, and judges. Whilst filming the courtroom scenes, I will be using a different method compared to the rest of the film. As I aim to shoot the courtroom on a tripod in fragments, I plan to shoot the other scenes as long shots with a moving camera. I prefer such an approach to highlight the difference between the real-life and the tensely passing time within the courthouse. I imagine the film to have a dark atmosphere. I will be preferring to use natural lighting. The framing and the art direction will both represent Nesrin’s stuck state.
Producer’s statement
Our long-term relationship with Selman Nacar is based on co-production. As the final product of this relation, we have taken upon the production of Selman’s first feature Between Two Dawns. Now, we are happy that we will be working with the same production team for Selman’s second feature. Hesitation Wound focuses on the complicated decisions people have to make when they find themselves in a predicament, and draws attention with its many layers. In this film, which can be summarized as a series of contradictory states, traces of Selman’s legal education can also be seen. This drama, personal as it is universal, has a strong script that emphasizes moral issues. In this context, we fully believe that this film will be important for Turkey’s cinema as well as for world cinema. We are confident that this multi-layered story combined with the visual language to which we are familiar from Between Two Dawns will offer an international festival journey as well as box office success.
Production company profile
Selman Nacar founded the production company KUYU FILM at Istanbul in 2018. Focusing on narrative films and creative-documentaries, Kuyu Film premiered its first feature The Pillar of Salt at the 68th Berlin Film Festival in Forum Section and its second feature Belonging at the 69th Berlin Film Festival in Forum Section. Kuyu Film is currently working on a third feature titled Between Two Dawns.
Email: info@kuyufilm.com