Çağla Zencirci
The French-Turkish couple Çağla Zencirci & Guillaume Giovanetti have been co-directing films, and also their lives, since 2004. After several short films (selected in Berlin, Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand, etc.) and a feature film, Noor (Pakistan, 2012 / Cannes Acid), Sibel, their second feature film, premiered in international competition at Locarno in 2018, where it received three awards. The film was then selected for around a hundred festivals and received more than 40 awards. It was successfully released in cinemas in 2019 around the world (France, Turkey, Germany, the United States, etc.), attracting more than 200,000 viewers. A finalist for the Golden Globes and European Film Awards, the film was purchased by Canal+, Ciné+, OCS and Arte in France, and by HBO in Europe.
The duo came to Groupe Ouest for the development of their fourth feature film, Chen & Gan, set on an island in the Bosphorus and in a Romani neighbourhood of Istanbul.
A travaillé avec...
“When we’re writing, when we’re making the film, we’re in our own world. But a film that isn’t seen isn’t really a film. So you always have to bear in mind that at some point, people are going to watch it. They will have their own impressions, their own feelings about what we wanted to create […]. People will see the film and interpret it, filter it through their own lives and their own backgrounds. I think it’s good—even at this development stage—to keep that in mind."
Auteure-réalisatrice
Chen & Gan
Sélection Annuelle 2021
Istanbul, present day. Roman, a 35-year-old Romani leader, marries off his 16-year-old sister Elmas to save his community from the imminent destruction of their neighbourhood. But Elmas flees her marriage and, guided by a mysterious fog, finds herself in a women’s refuge on an island in the Bosphorus, run by Anka, a 32-year-old austere and secretive woman. This is how Roman and Anka’s paths cross, and each recognises their teenage love… A unique love, free, unbound by tradition, but snatched away in mid-flight by irreparable mutual betrayal. At least, that’s what they believed… Distraught by the revelations of the past, and encouraged by omens echoing the Indian legend of Chen & Gan, a couple who braved obstacles to create the ‘Chen-Gan’ people who became ‘Gypsies’, will Roman and Anka be able to transcend their limitations and let their love rise from the ashes?
A screenplay by Çağla Zencirci, Guillaume Giovanetti and Delphine Agut (co-screenwriter).