CANNES: There is an almost unbearable moment early in the biting Turkish black comedy “Album” — which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Thursday — when a childless couple visit an orphanage to choose a baby to adopt.
As they look the child over, it’s clear they are not overjoyed that she’s a girl.
When the baby gurgles and smiles, desperate to be picked up, one says: “She looks a bit Syrian.”
“A Kurd I’d say,” the other replies, and they make their excuses and leave.
“Album,” one of the highlight of Cannes Critics’ Week section, holds up the mores of provincial Turkey to the light and finds them sorely wanting.
“It is not that this couple are horrible or nasty,” director Mehmet Can Mertoglu told AFP. “They are not. They are just ordinary civil servants, with all the usual racism and prejudices you find.”
Couples are under huge pressure from their employers and families to have children, not just the government, the first-time director said.
“All they want is to be respectable... and they can kill for their respectability,” said Mertoglu.
Despite attempts to lift the taboo over adoption, it is still seen as something “shameful, to be hidden,” he said.
In the film, the couple compile a fake family photo album of the pregnancy with the help of their family and friends.
Mertoglu said that when researching the film he found it was “common practice in Turkey for parents to create proof of a biological tie to the baby to cast away any doubt about their fertility.”
“And it has nothing to do with social status,” he added, revealing “academics and highly educated people” as being known to have the same hang-ups.
As they look the child over, it’s clear they are not overjoyed that she’s a girl.
When the baby gurgles and smiles, desperate to be picked up, one says: “She looks a bit Syrian.”
“A Kurd I’d say,” the other replies, and they make their excuses and leave.
“Album,” one of the highlight of Cannes Critics’ Week section, holds up the mores of provincial Turkey to the light and finds them sorely wanting.
“It is not that this couple are horrible or nasty,” director Mehmet Can Mertoglu told AFP. “They are not. They are just ordinary civil servants, with all the usual racism and prejudices you find.”
Couples are under huge pressure from their employers and families to have children, not just the government, the first-time director said.
“All they want is to be respectable... and they can kill for their respectability,” said Mertoglu.
Despite attempts to lift the taboo over adoption, it is still seen as something “shameful, to be hidden,” he said.
In the film, the couple compile a fake family photo album of the pregnancy with the help of their family and friends.
Mertoglu said that when researching the film he found it was “common practice in Turkey for parents to create proof of a biological tie to the baby to cast away any doubt about their fertility.”
“And it has nothing to do with social status,” he added, revealing “academics and highly educated people” as being known to have the same hang-ups.
