Ilker Catak, the Turkish-German director behind the Berlin Film Festival entry 'Yellow Letters,' says his new marriage drama is intended as a warning for audiences who assume democratic backsliding is a remote threat. The film, which is one of 22 features vying for the festival's top prize, turns the spotlight on how extraordinary political pressure can upend an intimate relationship and dismantle a previously secure life.
'Yellow Letters' stars Ozgu Namal and Tansu Bicer as a married actor and playwright. In the story, the couple lose their jobs and their comfortable lifestyle after the husband faces state scrutiny and reprisals for posting critical material online, Catak told Reuters.
Catak framed the film as a reminder that repression is not confined to other countries. 'We always thought in the West that we’re immune to that kind of political repression. And now we’re realizing we’re not,' he said, adding a direct caution about the fragility of civic rights: 'You can lose your job too, if you are stating the wrong political statements.'
Those narrative concerns mirror developments that occurred in Turkey last spring, when the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu - identified in the film's coverage as President Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest political rival - sparked the largest anti-government demonstrations seen in a decade and precipitated widespread detentions. The clampdown on a principal opposition party has been cited in the film's discussion as having weakened the democratic credentials of Turkey, an EU candidate and NATO member.
Catak said he wants viewers to reflect on their own national contexts. 'I would wish that people watch my film and they think about their own state, their own country,' he said.
To underscore the parallels between the fictional narrative and real-world events, the director deliberately filmed in German cities. Audiences are asked to imagine that scenes shot in Berlin and Hamburg stand in for Ankara and Istanbul. 'If we had shot it in Turkey only, it would have been easy to say, ‘OK, that’s a Turkish problem,’' Catak explained.
'Yellow Letters' is Catak’s second film selected for Berlin after his 2023 entry, 'The Teachers’ Lounge,' which was chosen as Germany’s submission for the Academy Award for best international feature film. The Berlin Film Festival runs from February 12-22, with the Golden Bear awarded at the closing ceremony on February 21.
The film situates personal loss within a broader political frame and invites festival audiences to consider how quickly civic protections and livelihoods can be affected by state action. By relocating the setting to familiar Western cities, Catak intends to challenge assumptions that political repression is always geographically distant.