Gise Memuru (Toll Booth)

 
Melwood Screening Room: May 12 @ 2:30 PM 

Melwood Screening Room: May 18 @ 9:30 PM 

Passes not accepted on Opening/Closing Night. Please arrive at least 15 minutes ahead of start time to ensure availability of seating. Film schedule and Q & A's are subject to change.

 

Co-presented by the Global Film Initiative and is part of the Global Lens 2012 film series. For more information, visit www.globalfilm.org
2010/Turkey/Director: Tolga Karacelik/96 min.
Cast: Serkan Ercan, Zafer Diper and Nur Aysan (Language: Turkish with English subtitles)
Festivals and Awards: LAntayla Golden Orange Film Festival
 Strange things will happen when the humdrum of routine life comes face to face with emotional force and imagination. The first of film of Tolga Karacelik explores the monotonous routine of a toll-booth worker through the lens of psychological surrealism, diving straight into a pot that is just starting to boil.
Toll-booth worker Kenan (Ercan) is a “robot” according to his coworkers; a man so dull and seemingly devoid of a personality that even his age is ambiguous. Each day he takes ticket after ticket, cashes the tolls and raises the bar, car after car from thousands of drivers before the commute home. His lack of personality and social interest earned him the unofficial title of most-efficient attendant, but he is increasingly consumed with painful daydreams of his tortured past.
Soon Kenan’s life in the booth, his only escape from the lash of his ailing father’s tongue, becomes the scene of a nervous breakdown as his fantasies seep into reality.  Fatefully falling on the day of an employee inspection, Kenan is transferred to a desolate toll booth. It is the only structure in miles of surreal golden sunflower fields.  Only a couple of cars pass through each day, leaving Kenan’s head to explore its desires and demons.
With an addicting score and impeccable acting, Toll Booth’s darkness is bespeckled with humor and social commentary. The eloquent photography, described by the New York Times as, “a grammar of light that cycles from gray to taupe to eau-de-nil,” seamlessly transports the audience from reality to fantasy as Kenan’s mind begins to unravel.
Karacelik tells the story of this automated man about to explode with the perfect blend of beauty, self-deprecation and intelligence. He poses questions that will linger long after the film is complete…questions with many different answers.