What was your motivation for shooting in Bitlis?

Bitlis has a mystique of its own. We’re talking a town surrounded by mountains and cut off from the outside world... Bleak, melancholy people... These qualities alone made a perfect match for the mood of the film. As an added bonus, the place has tobacco, a cigarette factory and hills where an injured cow can roam looking down on the town below, which we needed in any case.

How was the production financed?

Given that The Salt of Life is my first feature and I was wearing the hats of both director and producer, I wasn’t expecting an easy time with funding the film. On this basis, we managed the production very much on a shoestring budget. For all that, I knew realistically that a large part of the budget was going to come out of my own pocket - so in this sense my work in television as a series director over the last few years has been indispensable. At the same time, the load was made considerably lighter when the Turkish Ministry of Culture awarded the film production support . And once on location, we also has a lot of support from the Bitlis governor’s office and the local public.

How did you cast your actors?

My leading criteria when it came to casting were suitability for the role and naturalness rather than known names or rating angst. This approach was in any case necessitated by budget restrictions. Levent Ülgen, who plays the role of Şehsuvar, the imam, is perhaps the best known name in the cast, and he’s known more for his comedy roles on television. So to see him in an entirely different context was a surprise for local audiences. The rest of the cast was made up mostly of professional stage and film actors - lesser known names.
 
Can you comment on the plastic elements of the film and its cinematographic language?

When I first set about constructing the cinematographic language, my instinct was to favour the kind of dramatisation that brought out the inherent tension of the scenes, that exposed the impulses underlying the characters’ words and behaviour. It was as if we were observers there at that moment. And a slice of life unfolded before us in all its authenticity. But as it unfolded, we also got to observe what was not visible. In the process of shooting the film, the camera angles, movements and mise en scènes were all set up so the audience would experience the same thing. Even the score was composed with this philosophy, so with a conscious effort to avoid the melodic and recollective. Basically, I didn't want any plastic elements (music, lighting, camera, editing etc) to stand out in particular once the film was over.

If you were to make the film again, what would you do differently?

A tough question... I see the film as the sincere expression of a creative idea. The conditions we worked under were very challenging and for a first film, the budget was totally inadequate. I don't mean more favourable conditions would have produced a better film, but if I were to do it again, I’d definitely want to shoot in snow... This was something forfeited due to lack of funds, but I think that snow would have reinforced the sense of a world insulated from the world and enhanced the film’s poetry. This in turn would have lent the characters greater depth. Actually, I’d always pictured the film in a snow-clad eastern town.

Who are your main influences?

I’d say the directors who have had most impact on me are Robert Bresson, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Andrei Tarkovsky, Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman.