Heart-breaking story of two siblings: ’My Sister Mommo’

It’s the story of a 9-year-old boy being a big brother, a father, a mother and a luminary all at once. It is also screenwriter and director Atalay Taşdiken’s first feature film.

"Mommo-Kız Kardeşim" (My Sister Mommo) was released in Turkey on Friday. The film premiered in February at the 59th Berlin Film Festival Berlinale and received rave reviews from the jury for the performances of its child stars Mehmet Bülbül, 11, and Elif Bülbül, 8.

Later on, the film shared the Best Film Award at the 14th Nuremberg Turkish-German Film Festival with German Ina Weisse’s "Der Architect" and also won the Audience Award.

Taşdiken, a graduate of Konya Selçuk University Faculty of Physics, has directed more than 300 commercial films. In 1993 he directed "5 Numaralı Kamp" (Camp Number 5), a joint production by Turkey, Russia and Uzbekistan. He also wrote the film’s screenplay

Language of cinema
Taşdiken said he was nourished by Turkish cinema in his work, and that he aimed to create his own cinema language. "The children of Anatolia, which has a very rich history and magnificent civilizations, finally received the interest they deserve. This rich culture meets with a very different language of cinema. New generation filmmakers open to the world with a global mind. Turkish cinema is a trend now and I don’t think it will be short-time trend. I believe that the future of Turkish cinema is bright," he said. Talking about his film "Mommo-Kız Kardeşim," Taşdiken said he was the real witness of the story of the film. "I fictionalized this story in my mind for many years and I shot the movie almost by heart. It was an advantage that I knew the spaces where the film was shot and did not need storyboards," he said.

The film was shot entirely on location in the village of Çavuş in the central Anatolian province of Konya. Taşdiken said he had found the two child stars playing in the film from schools in villages nearby the film space. He said that although Elif Bülbül’s teacher told him Bülbül would not be able to play in a film, he had chosen her. While looking for the artist to play the paralyzed grandfather in the film, Taşdiken said, "I learned that Mete Dönmezer was struck with paralysis two years ago, and spoke with his doctors. They told me that he would be able to play in the film and in this way, a real paralyzed person played the character in the story."

He said the two children had never seen a camera in their lives. "I established a common language and behavior with both children. The result was very successful acting. The main secret here is that the children were told that it was not acting but expressing a reality in the village. I define the result as the power of love. Although Elif and Mehmet are not siblings, their surnames and even fathers’ and mothers’ names were the same."

The film's music was composed by Erkan Oğur, who, like Taşdiken was also a graduate of the university’s physics department. Taşdiken said the two professions seemed very different from each other but the two physicists did interesting work.

Earrings of his mother
Talking about one of his unforgettable moments during the shooting, Taşdiken said: "Ayşe had to wear an earring in the final scene. I took the earring from my mother. But when I gave it back to my mother, she yelled at me saying, ’I gifted the earring to Elif and told her to keep it until she is a bride.’ But Elif did not tell us anything when we took it from her. It was impossible for me to sleep that night. Despite it being too late at night, all the film personnel went to Elif’s house. I woke her up and put the earring in her ear again."

The story of "My sister Mommo'
Ayşe and Ahmet live in their grandfather Hasan’s house. After their mother’s death, their father Kazım remarried, but his new wife doesn’t want the children to live in their house. Kazım doesn’t take much interest in his children and this makes Ahmet very angry. His little sister Ayşe still visits her father from time to time. Hasan is very fragile and can’t do much for his grandchildren.

Hasan’s neighbor tells Hasan that Ayşe should work as home help for rich people in town, but Hasan doesn’t like the idea at all. But then, to their great relief, his daughter Fatma writes from Germany saying that her sister’s children can come and live with her in Germany. It looks as though Ayşe and Ahmet have managed to circumvent the looming threat of being packed off to a children’s home. Ahmet tries to protect his little sister as best he can. Before long, their hopes are all pinned on a future in Germany.