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The Apple

Zerya is a refugee woman in her 50s living in Paris. When she was only 22 years old, she had to leave her country because of the chemical gas thrown into the city of Halabja by Saddam Hussein on March 16, 1988. She has lived in France for 30 years. Visiting a painting exhibition in Paris, Zerya said, "This is not an apple," from Magritte's Betrayal of Images series. This painting reveals Zerya's past traumas. Zerya establishes both a historical and aesthetic relationship between the "apple with cloves", which expresses love in Kurdish mythology, the smell of apples in the gas used in the massacre, and Magritte's painting. She expresses the relationship of the painting with its own tragedy in a different performance.

  • Mehmet Acaruk
    Director
  • Mehmet Acaruk
    Writer
  • Menderes Karasu
    Producer
  • Nur Surer
    Key Cast
    "Zerya (elder)"
  • Dilan Duzguner
    Key Cast
    "Zerya (young)"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Elma
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, art, tragedy
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 13, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    15,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Turkey
  • Country of Filming:
    Turkey
  • Language:
    Kurdish, Turkish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Mehmet Acaruk

Mehmet Acaruk is from Urfa. Mehmet Acaruk has been doing professional photography for about ten years. He worked for a long time in Iz Magazine, with the editor-in-chief of Ara Güler, who is known as a master photographer in Turkey and around the world. He took important roles in the “Fotografevi” (which is known as a workshop, exhibition, Iz Magazine, and publishing house), the Turkey representative of "Magnum Photos".

He tried to transfer the story language he obtained from photography to cinema. It can be seen the effects of sociologist identity in all his works. He is of the opinion that all artistic and social disciplines should be addressed with aesthetic integrity. He takes his motivation for making movies from this claim. “The Apple” is his first short film.

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Director Statement

"The Apple" is a metaphorical work inspired by my mother's clove necklace. I brought together the short film The Apple in the form of a trilogy of mythology, experience, and an artistic claim: Love, massacre, and betrayal of images. In my estimation, art is built on the tragedy of the ordinary person. I didn't use dialogue in the movie; I just used a few off-voice to fortify the theme. Since, as Seneca says: “Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.”