BLUE MAN : CELIK’S FEARLESS EXPOSURE OF US CRIMES AT IRAQ BY PRADIP BISWAS, THE INDIAN EXPRESS JURY MEMBER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF INDIA JURY MEMBER FRIBOURG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, FIFF, SWISS CURATOR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS The debut film by young Turkish director Utku Celiks is Blue Man who is Canadian archaeologist investigating mass graves during the Iraq War who wakes up in a basement, unable to remember how he got there. In fact he was kidnapped. He wakes up in a basement, unable to remember how he got there. Faced with a baroque challenge, he now must piece together the past of the man who brought him there and discover the identity of the pregnant woman who is being held with him. In the star, a spooky situation is presented to the film buffs. The film first won the Gold Reel award in November in International Nevada Film Festival, and has gone on to win several national and international awards. Celik has made many documentaries before he embarked on his first feature film. Said he: I must say I cannot forget those works, and I am grateful. I had an intention for a long time to direct a full-length movie which would take place in just one room. In adding that he was inspired by Iraq war-themed documentaries is so much a reality. It is said he spoke to his script adviser Bryan Keithley. He suggested him to base the film on realistic stories. Celik is awed to see that it was amazing for him to find the Iraqi Blue Man graveyard during his research. Awfully, slews of mass graves have been dug up in Iraq since the U.S. invasion of Iraq toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Over one million Iraqis are believed to have gone missing in Iraq during the Hussein regime as a result of executions, wars and defections, of whom hundreds of thousands are thought to be in mass graves. This is an awe-struck move by Celik to unfold international crime by US. Celik said using only a single space in his film helped to get the maximal cinematic effect. It is said Celik strongly thinks it creates more tension and suspense for the audience. There is a kidnapped man with no reason and a tied woman in a single room. It creates an atmosphere of suspicion. Celik wanta to reflect the psychological effect of the war, rather than show scenes which have already appeared in many Hollywood movies. Blue Man focuses on the unknowns of the war, womens rights and the psychological elements dragging the country back into criminal conflict. Celik seems to have suggested that many foreign hostages in Iraq have appeared in other Hollywood films. Directed by Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes, a 2010 Spanish-American film Buried portrayed an American civilian truck driver contractor working in Iraq, who in course of movement after being attacked, finds himself buried alive in a wooden coffin with a mobile phone. Thus US making crimes at Iraq is galore. Through the film of Celik we come to know that as early as April 2004, Iraqi insurgents began taking foreign civilian hostages in Iraq. Insurgents have since kidnapped more than 200 foreigners, and dozens of foreign hostages have been killed by US crime. Nepal has seen 12 hostages killed, and the U.S. 11. What is awful and revealing is the mass killings of hostages were often recorded, with many brutally beheaded. Many hostages remain missing, without any clue to their location. aa.tr/en
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 13:13:39 +0000