this hit close home to me

as a turkish girl, i have so many childhood memories of me and my dad going on small vacations like this around turkey, some of it feeling euphoric as if he was my best friend and some of it feeling tense and confusing. my dad struggles with bipolar disorder, the complications and the beauty of a father daughter relationship could be confusing, its not pretty most of the time, especially when you are at that age of realizing that something could be wrong. but there are moments when everything just feels perfect, and as a child in a room full of people your age, your goofy dancing dad feels like the only person who truly is your person in life

the way the film captured turkey and turkish culture was also so beautiful, wonderful cinematography and sound design. the tape sequences were so experimental and meditating. the scene where we saw them through a reflection of a tv and the scene where the polaroid was developing were my two favorite. paul and frankie had such a perfect dynamic in this film, i would forget that i was watching a movie with a script and not just bits of life of two people. the movie did such a well job on composing memory onto film.

In the Q&A Charlotte Wells said that it took her 7 years to write the film: “Writing needs a stillness of mind.”

60th New York Film Festival