Film featuring Dink’s book story to be screened in Cannes

A short-length movie by a young Turkish producer, Ugur Egemen Iren, is going to be screened at the International Cannes Film Festival this year.

The movie’s plot is based on a book authored by Hrant Dink, the assassinated editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.

The producer, who is a fourth-year student at the Anadolu University’s Telecommunications Department, said he was very much moved the story about an old woman who every year visited a village in Turkey’s Sivas province and eventually died there.

“The book had a humanitarian content. I was very much excited to learn that people in the village took care of the woman. The story was very sincere. I decided to turn it into a movie script last year,” he said.

While producing his film, Ugur Egemen Iren also met with the employees of Agos, as well as Dink’s daughter, who asked him not to change the book’s essence.

The film was completed last summer.

“There are three main heroes in the film but the village’s population also has a role there,” the young producer said, adding that his project cost him 4,000 Turkish Liras (about $ 2,200).