Breaking Baz: ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ Filmmaker Ilker Çatak On Why He Favors Movies That Provoke & And How A Fight With His Father Sparked His Career
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Filmmaker Ilker Çatak, whose terrific film The Teachers’ Lounge is Germany’s submission for Best International Feature at the 96th Academy Awards, wants to see and make films that provoke.
But what exactly does that mean? Well, according to Çatak, most filmmakers, including himself, can feel a bit ‘same,’ despite best intentions. “We’re all kind of left-wing and woke, none of us are racist and we have the same values,” he begins during one of several conversations we’ve held over recent months at Telluride, TIFF and over email. “Sometimes I feel like I watch films, and they’re so safe.
You know where the story’s going to, and I actually want to see films that sometimes provoke and are not aligned to my perception of the world.” “I like it when a filmmaker makes a bold decision and risks something,” adds the director, whose credits include I Was, I Am, I Will Be and Stambul Garden.
For example, he says Yorgos Lanthimos’s Golden Lion-winning Poor Things “was bold for a filmmaker to make.” I wholeheartedly agree.
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