Interview with Guernslye Honorés
Smiling is like a lamp that illuminates our pessimistic and complex world. It is a natural tranquilliser that solves our whole confused nervous system in the most comfortable way. We should be able to say, “I wish I could smile more. I think that should be the best wish.
As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Turan Haste.
Turan Haste was born in 1989 in Istanbul, Turkey. Turan is a producer and director, known for Rutubet (2022), Hasat Zamani (2016) and Zengin Kiz Fakir Oglan (2012).
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?
Growing up in the suburbs of a cosmopolitan city like Istanbul exposed me to different cultures and ways of life. In my childhood, I always followed and watched the games from the outside and was more on the observer side. Although I had a quiet childhood, I was one of the most vocal in our neighbourhood fights, so I got the most beatings. This gave me the opportunity to closely analyse human behaviour and relationships. Thanks to these sweet memories, I have been able to look at disagreements, conflicts and confrontations between people from different perspectives. Because of my courageous attitude, I gained the respect and trust of different groups and was able to observe people from a sufficient distance. These remnants of my childhood formed the reflection of my character and my view of the world in my adulthood. After my university education, I became acquainted with cinema, and after watching the films of filmmakers such as Bela Tarr, Kubrick and Bergson, I began to form ideas in my head about what kind of cinema I should make. The Jung and Adler readings I did over time made me more interested in the depths of the human psyche and how I could translate that into cinema. I can say that the external conflicts I was interested in as a child became internal conflicts as an adult. Then I got to know cinema and started to tell these accumulated sediments and transfer them to the screen.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
After my military service, I started working in the cinema industry. Cinema sets require a lot of stamina, so your physical health is very important. At that time, I had a health problem with my foot and I had to stand and work. Although I was in a lot of pain, I remained patient and continued to work. The only motivation that kept me going was that one day I would make my own film. In those days when my patience was being tested, I met my friend Muhammed Furkan Daşbilek, the screenwriter and producer of the film The Moisture. I think it was in 2014. His passion for cinema was the same as mine. After we met, we started to sit and talk about cinema and exchange ideas whenever we had free time. I remember talking about ideas and taking notes at every opportunity, between meals on set, and during location changes.
We were like crazy. The ideas we talked about, the scripts we wrote, and the characters began to enter our dreams. This growing shared passion brought us our first film, Harvest Time, which we shot on a very low budget in 2016. Then we made Naphthalene in 2018 and On the Banks of a River in 2020. Of course, we made a few commercial films in between. The accumulation of years and shared dreams grew, grew, grew and continued with the film The Moisture. This shared dream took us first to the Venice Film Festival and then to the Santa Barbara Film Festival. And in the end, it brought us together with you 😊.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?
We were on the set of a period film set in the 1920s. The scene required a group of 150 people to march down the street with slogans. We were shooting in a public place where the streets were a natural plateau. Since we didn’t have a big production, we did everything with our own means. While the set was being prepared, our directing team took the rehearsals of the group of 150 people. The period costumes had not yet been put on the characters. Shouting, shouting, slogans… We had the permits, but a group of policemen passing by saw the commotion and panicked, so they rushed into the crowd and started to disperse the people. It was a tragic event. In a short time, when it was understood that it was a cinema set and we had permits, we all laughed together and continued working 😊.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
Unal Silver, the actor we lost last month. Although he was 70 years old, he was a very colourful and disciplined actor. When we met him, we were preparing our short film Naftalin and had chosen him as the lead actor. After reading the script, he motivated us by saying that we should turn this story into a feature film for about a month. She didn’t know us at the beginning of the film, but we got to know each other over time and she shared her life experiences with us every chance she got. During the production of the film, we lacked costumes and accessories. When he found out about these deficiencies, he first opened his own wardrobe for us, then he did something we never expected and asked us to use the photographs and various accessories left by his late wife. Most importantly, he asked us to use a lock of his late wife’s hair in the scene. This emotional moment not only reflected the energy of the scene but also taught us that cinema is not only a passion but also requires sacrifice. I see it as a great opportunity that his energy was reflected in us and the film.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Muhammed Furkan Dasbilek is my biggest supporter in my cinema journey. His passion for cinema touches me deeply. He is like an idea machine. Every month he comes up with something new. Sometimes it is hard to keep up with him because he wants to run all the time, but when you follow him, you understand why he runs with ambition, perseverance and stubbornness. I think he will be very successful. Hey brother, I’m always with you, never give up. Apart from him, the co-producer of The Moisture is colourist Engin Cebiroğlu. Engin is our big wolf. The fact that he has been working in the film industry for years has given me a lot of experience. Engin and I have been friends since university. After school, we both started working in the film industry in different areas. We have been producing films together since 2016. I greet him from here. I am happy to have friends.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
What can be the purpose of human life? This is one of the questions we have been pondering for a long time. Most of us live our lives with certain innate abilities and characteristics. These abilities often shape our relationships with the world and with other people. People who do not want to be satisfied with this strive throughout their lives to reach the highest level. Recognising this, and striving to do so, helps societies to improve. Or not. I think that is the greatest purpose of our relationship with the world. With a quote from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, we can use the following sentence as a “life lesson quote”: “To be a higher and better person at the end of our life than at the beginning. This must be the sole purpose of man…
I am very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
I don’t quite understand whether what you are talking about is the common culture of mankind or local culture, but I would like to answer from a universal point of view, as I understand it. Like the invention of the wheel, the invention of art has led to the expansion of civilisations and the formation of common cultural areas. This situation has become more accessible with cinema, which was born through the filtering of many ancient arts such as painting, music and theatre. Films, series and documentaries were made that connected the whole world and a common feeling and culture began to form. With the development of technology, and especially with films and series that can be viewed on a screen the size of the palm of our hand, this situation has gained further momentum. The fact that this content resonates with every member of society makes the film and television industry a centre of attraction. Moreover, telling the stories of different groups, beliefs and cultures in societies offers these groups the opportunity to be recognised in a more human and honest way. This power of the media and the positive and accurate portrayal of different ethnicities, genders and age groups provides a significant benefit in terms of social equality and justice. In this way, access to the stories of the diverse individuals who make up societies and empathy with their struggles unite societies around a common emotion, while providing an experience of shared culture, emotions and experiences. This diversity in the entertainment industry has a direct impact on the quality of content. I am aware that I am giving answers like a theorist, but if I approach it from a more honest point of view, I am more interested in the artistic side of the business. I want the films I have made or will make to serve as a crutch rather than an entertainment tool, just like the crutch we use to shake off the dust that has accumulated on those precious and rare carpets. I want to produce works where we can clean the dirt and dust created by time, experience and social abuse, and learn how to recover the goodness, purity and beauty that exist in our essence, and how to fight evil. The Moisture is one of them.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
We are working on the project “Boys Don’t Take Advice”, a modern adaptation of Cain and Abel, which will be produced by me and written and directed by Muhammed Furkan Daşbilek. This project will be our team’s first feature film. The sibling conflict, the food crisis and the middle-class conflict, which is one of today’s problems, are the universal qualities of the film. We also have an eight-part series project that we are preparing for platforms such as Amazon, HBO and Netflix. Perhaps through you, someone will become aware of the existence of these projects and want to be a partner in these dreams we have built. Who knows 🙂
Which aspect of your work makes you most proud? Can you explain or give a story?
I think cinema is a collective art. With every new film you make, you have to make people believe in you and your work. The actors, the cinematographer, the art director and the rest of the team focus on the energy and motivation they get from you at the very beginning. Especially for the actors, the energy and motivation they get from you is as effective in their decisions as the quality of the project. When Mücahit Koçak, the lead actor in the film The Moisture, first read the script, he said that participating in a short film project would not be the right decision for his career and rejected the project. But our flirtation continued for about 2 months. He asked about the film from time to time and wondered when we would start shooting. We had almost everything ready, the only thing missing was him. We had designed the character after her and the meaning of the film would be better completed with her face. And he finally admitted that he wanted to be in the film. I think our work helps us a lot to convince people and it is reflected in the spirit of the films we make. We and our team are very happy with the result. That must be the aspect we are most proud of.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why.
- Watching too much.
- Read too much.
- Film too much.
- Don’t complain.
- Always smile.
These 5 points are all related to each other and to life. Time and life go by as fast as a strip of film, and when people look back on their lives, they can’t help but say that they wish they had done everything on time. No matter how young we are and how healthy we are, unless we have the power to hold the hand of the clock and stop time, we will always say “if only” to everything in our lives. Wishes follow us constantly like a shadow behind us. The important thing is how prominent the darkness of that shadow is in our lives. This is why the 5 points I have listed make people strong in their essence and at the same time have the effects that will reduce the “if onlys”. When I look back on my 15 to 25 years, I always say that I wish I had read and watched more at that time. Because these are the ages when you take life in your hands and shape it like play dough, and the better your material is, the more quality time and life you will have in the future. Reading and watching, of course, contribute a lot to the spiritual factors that nourish people and their outlook on life. This is followed by more filming. Our job is to convey emotions to people through images and to be the best at that, you have to shoot more and expose yourself to it. We must always look at the world through a viewfinder, squeezing life into our own frame. The sources we read and watch, and the sources we feed on, also determine the content we will shoot. Since this is the point at which we earn our lives, when we look back at each passing time, the what-ifs should not pile up in front of us. If they pile up, we should not complain. Complaining is the greatest escape and hiding technique. Therefore, we can find a new way in every aspect of life, complaining is the biggest waste of time. Whatever we experience, good or bad, our greatest weapon to reduce what-ifs is to smile. Smiling is like a lamp that illuminates our pessimistic and complex world. It is a natural tranquilliser that solves our whole confused nervous system in the most comfortable way. We should be able to say, “I wish I could smile more. I think that should be the best wish.
When you create a film, which stakeholders have the greatest impact on the artistic and cinematic choices you make? Is it the viewers, the critics, the financiers, or your own personal artistic vision? Can you share a story with us or give an example about what you mean?
The greatest stakeholder of an artist is his/her own qualities. The perspective on life, humanity and the world is shaped by these qualities. What we call inspiration emerges as a result of the relationship we establish with these qualities. All my life I have tried to reach the highest version of myself. In every film I have made, I have tried to share this relationship with my own essence with the audience. The choices I have made have taken on a universal quality because they contain the most basic problems of the human soul. I think the fact that a person on the other side of the world, regardless of language, religion and culture, can watch my films and feel the same emotions is the greatest indicator of this. During the American premiere of The Moisture, I remember the comments of an American actor who had seen the film twice. ‘’Am I missing something or is this feeling real? What happened to that girl? Or is there something more important?’’ He started asking himself half the questions we wanted the audience to ask in the film. And after thinking about it a bit, he slowly started to find his answers. That moment was an incredible experience. That is the power of cinema. It can bring strangers together around the same feelings.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
When I was a child, we used to block the roads at midnight by placing huge stones in the middle of the road. Drivers who saw the stones would get out of their cars and try to clear the stones from the road by cursing. We would see the driver and help him as if we were passing by, and we would earn his gratitude. I remember one day a wise man stopped, looked around and saw us. After clearing the stones, he walked back to his car without saying a word. Of course, we started to grumble, we had helped him. How could he drive off without thanking us? When he heard the grumbling, the man turned around, grabbed my shoulder, took a wad of money out of his pocket and gave it to me. He leaned into my ear and said, “You’ve done a very important job today. This is your reward. He got into his car with a strange smile on his face. As he drove past us, he said his last words through the window of the car and disappeared into the darkness. I don’t remember what those last words were, but I do remember that the money he gave me was counterfeit. I think the answer to that question is directly proportional to the lesson I learned from that memory. Emphasising values and principles that encourage people to do good and help them make a positive impact can have a more positive impact on a societal level. Therefore, to educate a generation with a programme from childhood to adulthood with concepts such as love and kindness, and to ensure that this generation is released into the world and that this education spreads like an epidemic. Hahah sounded very utopian, but if evil can spread like a virus, why can’t goodness? 😊.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
Morgan Freeman. I’m a fan of his. 😊
How can our readers further follow you online?
You can follow me on all accounts turanhaste/instagram — x — facebook. You can follow my film as it continues its festival journey on rutubetshortfilm/instagram.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Thank you very much. Our film The Moisture is on its way to the Oscars. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves and our film in this process.
About the interviewer: Guernslye Honoré, affectionately known as “Gee-Gee”, is an amalgamation of creativity, vision, and endless enthusiasm. She has elegantly twined the worlds of writing, acting, and digital marketing into an inspiring tapestry of achievement. As the creative genius at the heart of Esma Marketing & Publishing, she leads her team to unprecedented heights with her comprehensive understanding of the industry and her innate flair for innovation. Her boundless passion and sense of purpose radiate from every endeavor she undertakes, turning ideas into reality and creating a realm of infinite possibilities. A true dynamo, Gee-Gee’s name has become synonymous with inspirational leadership and the art of creating success.
Turan Haste: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.