Filmmaker Buket Alakus knows what life is like for a Turk living in Europe. It's complicated.
Born in Istanbul, Alakus grew up in Hamburg, Germany. She studied film in Berlin and Hamburg. Her films include 2001's Anam, which won awards at film festivals in Braunschweig and Oldenburg, and 2008's Finischer Tango. Her 2005 feature Eine Andere Liga (Offside) screens on Friday, June 4, at K&S/NY 2010.
K&S's Rachel Markus recently spoke with Alakus to discover why she made this film.
K&S: Have you always been a football fan?
Alakus: I watch the World Cup, but all my Turkish family, both female and male, are fanatic football lovers. I would see my dad cry when his club lost or dance like crazy when they win. My mom was so sad and angry when her club lost that she wouldn’t cook for us, and we’d painfully have to eat what my dad cooked. While studying filmmaking, I noticed how similar a football game and a feature film are: Both are teamwork and take 90 minutes playing time, the football player is like an actor and the coach is the director. Football is not only just a game or a fight, it is emotion, like to tell a story about love or hate, or life and death.
K&S: What inspired the story of Eine Andere Liga?
Alakus: I read in a woman’s magazine about a young girl fighting against breast cancer. She was so young and I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and always asked myself, "What would I do if I had breast cancer?" I remember how my mother fought against cancer and that was the beginning of building the main character of Hayat.
K&S: Do you think this storyline could have been told through another sport?
Alakus: I thought for a long time, what kind of sport would fit for the character Hayat. I decided football, because Hayat’s fight is a life-and-death struggle, she wants breath, she needs to run and feel herself. And to fight for a team is as to fight for herself.
K&S: Was it difficult to get financing for the film, especially as it focuses on football through a female perspective?
Alakus: In Germany we have such good female fooball players, but nobody really accepts that women play football. That was the reason why it was so diffucult for us to finance this film. Some people who read my script told me if I just kept the story to a girl with breast cancer, maybe we’d get more money. It was painful to make this film, but I regret nothing.
K&S: In the film, Hayat has ties to both her Turkish and German identities; do you believe football is something that transcends national identity? Who would she be rooting for in the World Cup?
Alakus: Football is teamwork but your identity is not important, because you don't even need to talk. I always notice when I am in a different country how people come together, just to play football. And I believe Hayat is split between Turkish and German, like I am. But I sympathize more with a team who fights to win.
K&S: Hayat and her father have a very special relationship. Do you think it was important to her story to be lacking a close female figure?
Alakus: I never think about this question. I know how broken characters feel pain. I think it is easier to play football as a girl when you live with your father, because more men love football. But it is heavy for a girl to get breast cancer when your mother is not there for you.
K&S: Football represents much more than a game to Hayat. How does that reflect how you or people around you in Turkey and Germany view football?
Alakus: In Turkey, also in Germany, we say football means life or death. That is why people cry or dance like crazy.
K&S: I love Hayat’s fight to stay true to her soul. Were there any female role models in your life which inspired her strong character?
Alakus: My mother had breast cancer and she died very young. But I had only a little time to know her, not only as her daughter, but more as a friend. She lost her fight, but her fighting soul lives inside my sister, my brother, and me.
K&S: Were there challenges in casting the lead roles?
Alakus: It was difficult just to find a good actor who can play football. We decided to find a good actor and then a perfect football trainer to teach the actors.
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