Brussels-based Be for Films has announced the first round of international deals for “Yellow Letters,” director Ilker Chatak’s sequel to “The Teacher’s Lounge,” which won an award at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for a German Oscar.
Ahead of its world premiere in competition at this year’s Berlinale, “Yellow Letters” was pre-sold in Germany and Austria (A La Mode), Benelux Airlines (Cineart), France (Haut & Côtes), Italy (Lucky Red), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Sweden (Lucky Dogs), Switzerland (Film Coupi), as well as the Baltic States (Aone), Croatia (Kino Mediterrane) and Hungary. (Mozinet), Poland (Aurora), Serbia (Five Stars), Slovenia (Demiurg), Ukraine (Arthouse Traffic), Greece (Cinobo), Norway (As Fidalgo), Portugal (Alambique), Turkey (Bir Film).
“Yellow Letters” follows Deliya and Aziz, an artist couple who experience the arbitrariness of the Turkish state and lose their jobs and livelihoods overnight. The trade-off between their ideals and the necessities of life proves to be a challenge for their marriage.
This film reunites Chatak with Be for Films, and has partnered with Sony Pictures Classics in the U.S. to develop “Teacher’s Lounge” around the world.
Çatak, who was born in Berlin to Turkish parents, says his films are “about people who have lost employment, social status and the right to exist in Turkish society due to the state’s arbitrary actions.”
The director, who co-wrote the script with Aida Çatak, said that many artists “are no longer allowed to stay in Turkey, so I want to give these people a chance and cast the film with actors who are currently or will soon be living in exile.”
