Erol Mintaş’s “Earth Song” reveals cast and photos

Erol Mintaş has announced the cast for his upcoming feature film “Earth Song”.

Dilan Gwyn (“Da Vinci’s Demons”, “Dracula Untold”), Ali Seçkiner Alıcı (“Burning Days”), Feyyaz Duman (“Yalan”) and Zenan Tünc play the main roles in the film written by Mintaş and Mikko Viljanen, in which the first photos can also be seen.

Previously, Mintaş directed Duman’s debut “Song of My Mother,” which won an award in Sarajevo.

Earth Song was produced by Mete Sasioglu and Mintaş for Sons of Lumière, co-produced by Anna Blom for Jamedia Production (Finland) and Tanja Georgieva-Waldhauer for Elemag Pictures (Germany). With Finnish broadcaster YLE on board, Cinemanse will distribute the film in Finland, while Folkets Bio will handle Sweden.

In the drama – which is currently in post-production and will be presented at New Nordic Films’ Works in Progress session in Haugesund – Rojin, a Kurdish-Finnish woman (Dilan Gwyn), lives in Helsinki with her husband Ferhat (Feyyaz Duman) and their 12-year-old adopted daughter Azad. Her life and family fall apart when her father (Ali Seçkiner Alıcı) pays her an unexpected, devastating visit. She is forced to confront her complicated past.

“The film is told from the perspective of the main character, but the supporting characters are also very important. Without them, we would not understand them so well,” said Mintaş diversity.

“It’s about a family, but also about Rojin, who faces many challenges because of her family ties, but doesn’t give up on dedicating herself to what she finds meaningful. The film also talks about how our family relationships are affected when we dedicate ourselves to the well-being of others.”

“Earth Song” is filmed in Kurdish, Turkish, Swedish and Finnish.

“There are great injustices that exist because of a person’s identity. Identity can be anything; it can be the way you wear your hat, and that can get you in trouble – just because you don’t fit the mold. When they come to oppress you because of that, of course you fight back. It’s an interesting phenomenon that makes the dynamics between people fascinating but also tragic,” he said.

“Family is deified in almost all societies. It is sacred. I wanted to show a family that makes us think about what the whole concept of ‘family’ even means. For them and for us. I really hope the film makes people think about that.”

Or climate change – which is why there is always a wind blowing in Helsinki.

“There are windy, poetic outdoor scenes and intimate indoor scenes. The wind separates these two worlds,” he explained.

Mintaş, who is also a doctoral student at Aalto University in Helsinki, founded the Academy of Moving People and Images for “those who have come to Finland for different reasons”, whether displaced persons, forced immigrants, students or asylum seekers.

“I met Erol through the academy. He asked me to teach production. My father is from Turkey, not far from Erol’s hometown, so there was a connection there,” Sasioglu noted.

Helsinki-based Sons of Lumière focuses on “telling stories of underrepresented people.” Its latest productions include Sámi filmmaker Marja Helander’s “Áfruvvá,” an immersive film that premiered in Venice.

“I’m very happy that the film was financed, but it’s still a challenge to tell such stories. At one point there were voices asking whether this film was ‘Finnish’ enough. What is Finnish?! Yes, the characters speak different languages ​​and look different, but they live in Helsinki, and the film is mostly set there.”

Mintaş added: “I completely agree with Khadar Ayderus Ahmed (the director of ‘The Gravedigger’s Wife’); the film industry in Finland is still quite ‘white’. The streets in Finland are more diverse than the screens in Finland.”

“It’s still not easy to tell stories that are not part of the norms of white society, but we were lucky: there are great decision-makers and thanks to them we were able to finance the film. They believed, as we did, that these characters should be seen on screen. I hope that in the future the right people will be in decision-making positions so that the change that has begun can continue.”