FILM | GERMAN CURRENTS KINO
I WAS, I AM, I WILL BE

ES GILT DAS GESPROCHENE WORT

Fri, 04/11/2025 -
Wed, 04/16
Digital Gym San Diego

Ilker Çatak's multi-award-winning film I WAS, I AM, I WILL BE (ES GILT DAS GESPROCHEN WORT) is presented as part of GERMAN CURRENTS KINO San Diego, a partnership between the Goethe-Institut, emago media, and the Digital Gym Cinema.

SHOWTIMES:
Friday, April 11th @ 7:00 PM
Wednesday, April 16th @ 7:00 PM


France, Germany (2018), 122 min. German, Turkish w/ English Subtitles
Director: Ilker Çatak, Screenplay: Nils Mohl, Ilker Çatak, Cinematography: Florain Mag, Cast: Anne Ratte-Polle, Oğulcan Arman Uslu, Godehard Giese, Jörg Schüttauf, Producer: Ingo Fliess, Executive Producers: Ingrid Holzapfel, Birsin Çolakoğlu, Luzie Lohmeyer, Co-Producers: Xavier Delmas (Loin Derrière l'Oural), Alexandra Staib (ZDF), Caroline von Senden (ZDF), Olaf Grunert (ZDF/arte), Barbara Häbe (arte) 
Production Company: if… Productions
 
Ilker Çatak's sophomore feature is a nuanced examination of life's unpredictability, the progression from a troubled past to a complicated present, and the hopeful promise of the future. Opposite worlds collide when Marion (Anne Ratte-Polle), a self-confident airline pilot from Germany, meets Baran (Ogulcan Arman Uslu), a charming Turkish gigolo at a beach resort in Marmaris. With dreams of a better life beyond the Bosphorus, Baran convinces Marion to take him back to Germany. What begins as a selfless good deed and a simple arrangement develops into something more profound, as Marion's emotional barriers begin to crumble, and the two come closer than planned. 
 

"Çatak keeps the focus on a human level as the couple faces the kind of dilemmas that might have fueled a melodrama by Douglas Sirk or Fassbinder." 
- Allan Hunter, Screen 


SELECT AWARDS:
Heimat Europa Filmfestpiele 2020: Edgar, Best Modern Heimatfilm German Film Awards 2020: Lola in Bronze, Best Film Bavaria Film Prize 2020: Best Leading Actress (Anne Ratte-Polle) Fünf Seen Film Festival 2019: DACHS, Screenplay German Film Festival Ludwigshafen 2019: Special Mention Filmfest München 2019: Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino, Best Acting; Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino, Screenplay.

Ilker Çatak was born in 1984 in Berlin and studied Film and TV Directing in Berlin and Mittweida. Since 2012, he has been a post-graduate student at the Hamburg Media School. He has directed several commercials and the short films WHEN NAMIBIA WAS A CITY (2010), OLD SCHOOL (ALTE SCHULE, 2013), WHERE WE ARE (WO WIR SIND, 2013), FIDELITY (SADAKAT, 2014), THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE (2023).

WORLD SALES
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