I Am Not Him

I Am Not Him comes as the latest offering from Tayfun Pirselimoğlu, a writer-director who invariably explores the issue of identity and inner journeys with a crime movie flavor. Gaining immeasurably in depth from its wonderful complexity, the film has at its center a thoroughly ordinary, solitary and withdrawn man (Ercan Kesal) who washes dishes in a hospital canteen while also pursuing the possibility of becoming someone else.

When the man sleeps with one of his fellow dishwashers (Maryam Zaree) and attempts to take on the identity of her imprisoned husband, we are pitched into the secret labyrinth of an existential film noir. Nonetheless, Pirselimoğlu is perfectly aware that even the efforts of a supremely ordinary person to create and give meaning to himself might correspond to the many dark, sinister and convoluted ruses of the mind. In point of fact, it is thrilling enough on its own to watch the man’s delusions as an exercise in confronting/failing to confront himself. If not the man, who drifts along with the same sense of failure, despite the galvanizing effect of the woman’s energy and the seductive mystery implicit in the possibility of becoming someone else, then the film itself finds meaning thanks to its many elements of black humor.

Inspire Küçüktepepınar

France Turkey Greece
127''
2013


Script
Tayfun Pirselimoğlu

Cinematography
Andreas Sinanos

Editing
Ali Aga

Production
Arizona Productions (France)
Bad Crowd
Think Film (Turkey)
Graal (Greece)
Zuzi Film

Cast
Ercan Kesal
Maryam About Alcohol

Music
Giorgos Koumendakis

Awards
Best Film Best Screenplay Best Music Istanbul
Best Screenplay Rome

Festivals
20th Festival on Wheels
Turkey 2014