Interviews

Interview with Dr.Nurdan Tekeoglu

"Torn Love", directorial debut of Dr.Nurdan Tekeoğlu

Dr.Nurdan Tekeoğlu, producer, academician in business administration at Ä°stanbul Ticaret University.

A couple of years ago, we interviewed you on the film you produced I loved you very much. What made you decide to go behind the camera?

Torn love is a little bit my  story. My grandfather has always suffered and told to her daughters (to my mother and aunt) about the pain he had when he had to leave Nausa (Thessaoniki) and his farm and home and everything in one night with his 2 aunts and grandmother because of the population exchange agreement between Greece and Turkey. My grandfather and grandmother never told us about how they suffered. They did not want we get unhappy. But members of 3rd generations as us  started to research and make a journey to our roots. Nearly 7-8 years ago I made a travel to Thessaloniki and Nausa with my mother after my grandmother died and it was really sad for both us,Turkish people and the old Greek people in the Greek villages .We were both homesick. And I always wanted to write a book or shoot a film about it. And I told about my wish to Orhan Tekeoglu, director of many films and whom I supported as producer to realize his dreams and he reacted very positively and now supporting me as director of my first film.

Like the previous films you have worked on (IFAKAT, 2010), this one tells the story of the Turkish people. Explain to us the historical background of your film.

We made İfakat, I loved you so much; Extraordinary People and Rudolf Nureyev: Island of his Dreams and Twin Stars together in 7 years. We love cinema and we always have creative ideas to make films. Coming to your questions Politics separate people. Turkish and Greek people resemble each other in many ways. They physically look the same. Food, music, amanes, dances (horon), traditions and culture. But unfurtunately in 1923 Turkey and Greece made a population exchange agreement and Turkish Greek people had to leave their homes,country I mean Turkey in one night and Turkish people in Greece had to live their all belongings in one night. Writers like Dido Satiriyu, Handan Öztürk,Ä°rem Uzunhasanoglu,Ayse Kulin wrote books about the population exchange, immigration many books. The 3rd generation want to share the pains of their grandfathers and mothers with the whole world.

This short film is very personal, not only because it tells a story related to your country, but also because you tell the story of your grandfather. How did you find out about this?

I think I told it . It is fictional of course. It is not exactly the same story of my grandfather. But there is inspiration from my grandfather’s story.

What hopes do you have for the future Turkish generations ?

In the future I want that the future generations investigate nore about their origin and roots and tell the pains,suffering and forced immigration of their ancestors with documentaries, films, books, reserachs, articles, seminars to the whole world. You see the horrible situation of the refugees now. Nearly 5 million refugees are living in Turkey now and they suffer. Why? because they had to leave their lovely country, homes, work places,neighbourhoods,friends as some countries started a war in their country. And these some countries do it all over the world. Forced immigration,population exchange gives pain. I hope future generation starts peace and ends the wars.

BIO :

Born in Istanbul in 1964. In 1988 she graduated from sociology of Bosphorus University and worked in different national and international companies at different management levels. She was head of representative office of Metro AG,the German retail company till January 2011. She organized short film competitions for university students as social responsibility project for Metro AG with Türsak,film foundation in Turkey for 10 years. She felt in love with cinema and produced her husband’s first documentary IFAKAT after 3 years of development process. In 2013 Dr.Tekeoglu produced I LOVED YOU SO MUCH, a feature after 3 years of preparations and many difficulties. In 2015 she produced EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE and ISLAND OF HIS DREAMS with Evgenia Tirdatova, from Kinoglaz. She is member of EWA and Seyap,producer’s association Turkey. She is also a full time academician in marketing at Istanbul Ticaret University. She was also accepted to EFA,European Film Academy with reference