HESITATION WOUND
Selman Nacar
Kuyu Film (TR, FR, RO), fiction
On the day of the sentencing hearing for a murder suspect whom attorney CANAN believes is innocent and has been defending for a long time, she comes face to face with her conscience.
CANAN (39), a criminal lawyer spends her days in the courthouse, and nights in the hospital by her mother's side. The film is set on the day of the verdict hearing for a murder suspect whom Canan is defending. During the hearing we begin to trust the defendant. Canan later doubts whether the suspect has actually committed the crime. Canan must make a moral choice, with the lives of her mother, the judge and the accused at stake.
SELMAN NACAR / IMDB
SELMAN NACAR is a filmmaker, with an MFA in directing from Columbia University in New York City. He gave lectures on fictional filmmaking at the same university. He graduated from Istanbul 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. Selman’s directorial debut BETWEEN TWO DAWNS premiered at the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival and got many awards including the best film award at the 39th Torino Film Festival. He is currently working on his second feature film HESITATION WOUND.
Director’s statement:
My interest in the concepts of crime, justice and 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 CANAN’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 use natural lighting whenever possible. The framing and the art direction will both represent Canan’s conflicted mental state.
Where are we at?
Total budget: 647.000,00 EUR
Financing in place: 477.000,00 EUR
Sales agent: /
Territories available: World, except Turkey, Romania, France
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Completing the budget, sales agent, festivals
Production company profile
KUYU FILM was founded by Selman Nacar in 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. Selman Nacar's first feature and Kuyu Film's third feature BETWEEN TWO DAWNS premiered at San Sebastian Film Festival in 2021.