The Teachers’ Lounge director Ilker Çatak is reteaming with producer Ingo Fliess of if…Productions and cinematographer Judith Kaufman for his next feature, Yellow Letters.
Paris-based Haut et Court is on board as a co-producer and distributor in France and Alamode as distributor in Germany.
Set to shoot in Hamburg and Berlin from autumn 2023, Yellow Letters tells the story of an artist couple in Turkey who lose their jobs overnight due to arbitrary state action and start to live in exile. Together with their growing daughter, they fight for a life of dignity and for their ideals as artists and parents.
The film is based on German filmmaker Çatak’s own screenplay, with contributions from Ayda Çatak and Enis Köstepen.
Çatak is also teaming with new partners from Turkey for Yellow Letters: Nadir Öperli’s Liman Film, and Enis Köstepen and Mustafa Sönmez’s Tyger Film were involved in the development from the beginning.
Paris-based Haut et Court will co-produce and distribute the film in France. Haut et Court’s credits include The Night of the 12th, which recently won six prizes including best film at France’s Cesar Awards.
Yellow Letters is supported in Germany by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM) and in project development by MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and the German-Turkish Coproduction Development Fund.
The German distributor is Alamode, which handled The Teachers’ Lounge.
Negotiations are currently taking place about sales company representation for Yellow Letters.
The Teachers’ Lounge world premiered to strong reviews in the Panorama section at last month’s Berlinale. It has since sold to multiple territories through Be For Films. Sony Pictures Classics acquired all media rights in North America, Latin America and Eastern Europe excluding Hungary. Curzon Film acquired the film for UK and Ireland.
The Teacher’s Lounge won the Europa Cinemas Label award for Best European film in the Panorama section as well as the CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award.
Yellow Letters will be the fifth feature by German director Çatak, and the third he has made with producer Ingo Fliess of Munich-based if… Productions. The pair first worked together on 2019’s I Was, I Am, I Will Be, which had its world premiere at the Munich Film Festival, where it received the New German Cinema Award for both the screenplay and Ogulcan Arman Uslu’s acting performance. It also earned five nominations at the 2020 German Film Awards.
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