Ateş from Cihangir and Yavuz from Tophaneli are two very close friends. Ateş dreams of becoming an actor, while Yavuz is a taxi driver who wants to avenge his brother's death from drugs. Ateş, who stands up against all the injustices he encounters and often gets into trouble because of it, sees his life completely change when he meets Aleyna, who has fled to Istanbul to escape being forced into marriage with someone her family doesn't approve of.
Acting
Piyes brings raw, untrained electricity to every scene.
Direction
Piyes directs himself with zero vanity, all grit.
Production
Istanbul's Tophane district as an unforgiving character.
Director
Haluk Piyes
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tophane and Cihangir represent Istanbul's class fault lines — working-class migrants vs. gentrifying bohemians, colliding in this story.
Haluk Piyes, a German-Turkish actor turned director, channels his own hyphenated identity into Ateş's outsider-artist desperation.
TR
