Match Factory has acquired the international sales rights to German director Torker Sauer’s “Edge of Night,” and has released a trailer for the film (above). The film will have its world premiere in the Horizons Extra section of the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
The film revolves around Sinan, a young lieutenant in the Turkish army, who is ordered to hand over his brother Kenan to a military court. After the tragic death of their father, the two brothers embark on a journey through a land of political turmoil. As they confront their beliefs, Sinan's convictions are ultimately tested on the night of the coup. In a country where the state demands absolute loyalty, the brothers must decide whether they are willing to face the sacrifices that duty and conscience demand.
The film stars Ahmed Refaat Shungar and Berk Hakman, written and directed by Sawyer, and the director of photography is Matteo Coco.
“For me, this story began with the destruction of graves in eastern Turkey,” Soyer says. “Angry residents toppled tombstones, believing that the newly buried were members of a separatist terrorist organization. A local politician warned that such hatred could cost us our humanity. I was deeply shocked. Where does this hatred that does not even spare the dead come from?”
“Turkey has always been a land of strong contradictions, but today society seems never to have been so polarized. There seems to be a climate of deep mistrust. What interests me here is trying to understand what it means to live in such a context, where everything and everyone can quickly become a source of suspicion. To live in a country where the state seems to demand absolute and uncritical loyalty from its people.”
The producers are Viola Voggen, Michael Weber and Nadir Oberle. The main production companies are MFP GmbH and Liman Film. The film is a co-production of WDR in cooperation with Arte, and supported by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Eurimages and DFFF.
