“Es gilt das gesprochene Wort” (I Was, I Am, I Will Be)
Co-sponsored by Goethe-Institut Boston. 
About the Event
Join us for the film screening of director Ilker Çatak's "Es gilt das gesprochene Wort” (I Was, I Am, I Will Be). After the screening, Ilker Çatak will be present for a conversation about the film.
Synopsis
The pilot Marion usually has her life under control, mostly because she is good at keeping feelings away from her. When she is diagnosed with cancer, she does not even tell her partner about it. Instead, she travels to Turkey, where she meets Baran, a much younger Turk who makes his living by prostituting himself for tourists. Unexpectedly and spontaneously, Marion decides to marry Baran in order to give him a better life in Germany. What at first appears to be a selfless good deed, soon reveals the soul and emotional life of Marion and it turns out that, despite their very different lives, she and Baran are two people meeting at eye level. It is not least this realization that brings a new and unexpected dynamic into the relationship between the two.
A touching love story that challenges stereotypes about the courage it takes to face the stranger, to take risks and to accept challenges.
Germany/France 2019
German with English subtitles
Director Ilker Çatak, 122 min
About the Speaker
Ilker Çatak was born in Berlin in 1984. In 1996, he moved with his family to Istanbul, where he attended the embassy school. Following his graduation, he returned to Germany and gathered first-hand experiences working on film productions. In 2005, Çatak started to direct his own shorts. Until 2010, he studied film direction at the Dekra Hochschule für Medien in Berlin. The following year, he received a writer scholarship from the Bayerische Rundfunk.
From 2012 until 2014, Çatak attended the Hamburg Media School, from which he graduated with a master degree. His graduation short "Sadakat" (2015) garnered the grand prize in the short competition of the Max-Ophüls-Preis Festival, a First Steps Award and a Student Academy Award.
In 2019, Çatak's "Es gilt das gesprochene Wort" ("I Was, I Am, I Will Be") premiered at the Munich Film Festival and went on to win numerous awards, including two Förderpreise Neues Deutsches Kino and the Bavarian Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Çatak was nominated at the German Film Awards for screenplay and direction.
"Das Lehrerzimmer" ("The Teachers' Lounge"), based on an original screenplay by him and Johannes Duncker, premiered in the Panorama of the 73rd Berlinale. In it, Leonie Benesch plays a young, idealistic grammar school teacher who wants to do everything right, but in doing so sets a devastating escalation in motion. The film was released in German cinemas in spring 2023, entered the race for the German Film Awards with seven nominations and won in key categories: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Female Lead. Furthermore, "Das Lehrerzimmer" received a nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2024 Oscars®.