 But people can sit here, do you know? I'm trying to block it off so we don't hear everybody. I'm not here, but they can sit on the edge. Wait a minute. Welcome to the Martin E. Siebel Center at the Graduate Center, Germany. Today, you will see a staged reading and adaptation of the novel, Snow by Nobel Prize winner Orhan Amoud, who is with us in the audience. Gondin Sapkier and I had adapted the novel, Snow, for theatre. The play was directed by Gondin in the National Theater of Strasbourg in 2017. It has since then toured in France and in China. The title of this has transmitted our adaptation into English. We will be presenting this evening some selected scenes of our adaptation of Snow in English. It is going to last approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Now is the time to turn off your cell phones. Please take out your cell phones and check that the ringer is turned on silent. Thank you very much. About the novel, the poet Terim Anakushun, who prefers to be called Ka, his relations comes back to Turkey after a long exile in Germany. In Istanbul, he is hired by a newspaper, Jungoliet, to write an article on local elections and mysterious suicides of young women. The events take place in Kars, the city in the extreme east of Turkey. The poet Terim Anakushun, who prefers to be called Ka, travels like us to Kars. Traveling with him in the bus is a theatre company with the once famous actor and director Sunay Zayin. When the poet Ka arrives in the city called Kars, the snowstorm falls in the city and isolates it from the rest of the world for three days. Extraordinary events will happen during these three days. Kars presence in the city is an event in this remote city. Everybody wants to meet him and convey their vision of the city's problems. But the events driven by Sunay Zayin, the theatre director, will turn upside down everybody's life in Kars, the silence of snow. This is what you think of, sitting in the bus. If this feeling in you were a poem, that is what you would call it, the silence of snow. The exceptional beauty of it makes you even happier and seeing its thunder after all these years. You are a poet and in one of the poems of your youth, you wrote that, only once in a lifetime has it snowed in your dreams. Scene two, in the streets of the city of Kars. It's not the poverty or even the generalized depression that bothers you. It's the strange, powerful sensation of loneliness you see wherever you look in the city, an empty, sharpest place where the windows of cafes packed with unemployment blank cards. It's as if no one sees this, except for me. As if this place has been forgotten by everyone the snow will continue to fall silently until the end of time. Welcome to our border city, the Amistakha. What brings you here? Oh, I'm covering the elections for Chumhoriet, sir, and writing an article about the young headscarred girls who committed suicide. You are, to have doubted you said, Emperor-in-chief of the border city, you said. It's a great honor that you have taken an interest in our city. I will show you around, if you like. It's a lovely city and they're good people. But it is better not to go out alone. That's very kind of you, Sadavay. The suicides have been greatly exaggerated. Kars is a quiet city. You spoke to the wrong people and they gave you the wrong information. How do you know where I went? The police followed the obvious. And we, at a professional necessity, listened to the police. 90% of the information in our newspaper originates from the Kars police force. And intelligence agents know you're asking everyone why Kars is so backward and poor. And why are so many girls killing themselves? How are you doing my job, Sadavay? I'm going to tell you the true story of Kars. Before, we were all brothers. But these past few years, people have started to say, I am Azerbaijani. I am Kurdish. Oh, I am Kharkhin. Of course, we have all kinds of people here. And we always have Turkmen, Armenian, Lazi, from post-war Germans, deported from Russia by the Tsar. But no one was proud of their identity. Now, because of all the foreign power that wanted to divide and weaken Turkey, we are more proud and more poor. What about the Islamists, Sadavay? Islamists are going door to door, bringing women, burghers, soap, pots and pans. They play out emotions to create relationships in the poor neighborhoods. The men discuss with the men and the women with women. And they say, this poverty afflicting us is because we have turned from the path of God. By the end of these four, guys won't have faith in anything except God's part. And it's candidate. God's party, it's the prosperity part. And it's candidate is Buk Tarbet, the ex-husband of him, Pakhani, Turgut Bey's daughter. Turgut Bey runs the hotel he's staying at. Buk Tar is not the sharpest tool in the shed. He's a curler. It occurs to make up the 40% of the population. The prosperity party is going to win the local elections. Everything is being remote controlled by the international Islamic movement, which wants Turkey to beat another Iran. Even the girls' suicides. Those girls are being abused and we're gathering the denunciations to prove it. But we'd rather not write anything about it for fear of encouraging even more girls to kill themselves. But we've heard that Bloom, the famous Islamic terrorist, is here to incite him to suicide. But aren't the Islamists against suicide? Sendar Bey! What news have you prepared for us today? Allow me to introduce Kasim Bey, chief of intelligence. We have the honor of having caught with us our great poet who lives in Germany. He's coming to cover the elections in Paris, for Juliette, and to investigate the suicides of our girls. I don't get you about distressed. Open the car, sir. The city is a peaceful city. Would you like protection? Well, a plain clothes officer. That way you'll have nothing to worry about. Do I have to leave one? Our city is safe. Chased away in terrorists and separatists? You never know. If cars is safe, then I don't need one. It's up to you, sir. Up to you. I'll leave you with Serdar Bey. We'll take good care of you. Serdar Bey offers calm as one offers a carefully wrapped gift. The first page of the freshly printed newspaper. Famous poet Ka in cars. Known throughout Turkey, the poet Ka arrived yesterday in our quarter city. This is for tomorrow. Our young poet, Loryat of the Becet Nitsa Tihil Prize, which won him a steamo of the entire country, will be covering the local elections for turmeric. To our young poet evening for Sunay Zayn's Theatre Company at the National Theatre. The performance yesterday evening at the National Theatre by Sunay Zayn's Theatre Company, known throughout Turkey, for their instructive, pro-Aptur place was enthusiastically received. The citizens of cars who have long hoped for such an artistic event arrived in large numbers at the National Theatre, to burst, even though they could have watched the performance from the comfort of their own homes. Indeed, the magnificent performance was also televised thanks to the channel Kape Bey in the first live broadcast. Alongside plays dedicated to Aptur, parodies of the commercials which are eating away our culture, and a production of the most celebrated work of our enlightenment, I butterland all my scarf. There was a reading, latest poem, by a celebrated poet Kape who is currently visiting our city. But I don't have a poem called Snow. And I'm not going to the theatre tonight. Your newspaper will have created false information. Don't be so sure. Many people scorn us saying we predict the future rather than report the facts. But you should see their faces because every time what we report is exactly what happens. In fact, numerous events have taken place only because we wrote about the first. That's modern journalism. And this is why I'm sure that you will write a poem entitled Snow and so not to offend us and describe cause of the chance to be modern. You will come to the theatre and read it. Scene three, New Life Tea House. He pecks mysterious beauty by years at university. First woman I loved, the suffering of being in love. He pecks blue eyes. Her smile. I'm terrified of falling in love. I came for the local elections and the girls' suicides. Do you take the bus from Istanbul? Yes. I was on the same bus as soon as Zayim's Theatre Company. They're performing at the National Theatre tonight. You're already famous in cars. Change. Neither have you. You want coffee? They don't have any. Too expensive. Plus the waste business is deaf. Well, then let's do what poor people do and have tea. Yes, but I was a child. I don't recognize anything. The city has changed a lot. They demolished the old Russian train station. This tea house used to be an orthodox church. There's nothing left of it to cut the door into a way in a museum. What else is in a museum? There's a section on the Armenian massacre. You mean the Armenian genocide? No. Not the massacre of Armenians by Turks. The massacre of Turks by Armenians. The massacre of Turks by Armenians. Why did they want to arrest you? From an article I didn't actually write but let me publish under my name. It used to be that we were charged but never arrested and we were proud of it. After the coup, they started arresting everybody. Students, journalists, judges. It wasn't a game anymore. I got out before they could arrest them. And how was it in Germany? What saved me was not learning German. My body resisted German. I would write poetry in the evening in my studio near the Frankfurt train station. Then silence penetrated my life. I no longer heard the noise of the world I used to fight against to write. I didn't speak to anyone. I didn't speak to Germans or to Turks. They thought I was elitist and pretentious. I didn't see anyone. I didn't talk to anyone. Then I stopped writing. I guess that says you're going to read your latest poem tonight. I don't have a latest poem to read. Silence burdened me in Germany. I haven't written in four years. But what about you? Came here with Mukhtar to go for his father's business and it went bankrupt. My sister and father came after. Convated past the finals at university in Istanbul. She could get into the teacher's college here. Men sitting behind me, they'd have a baby but the best doctors. Nothing worked. We separated. Mukhtar hadn't been married. He's devoted himself to religion. Why is everyone devoting themselves to religion? Why is everyone committing suicide in the city? Not everyone. Women and girls. Men devote themselves to religion. Women commit suicide. Why? I have to see Mukhtar for my already called elections. I'll call him. Hello professor. Do you recognize me? No, I don't. Just as I thought, sir, we've never met. Yesterday evening and this morning I attempted to make your acquaintance but the police shut the door of the teacher's college in my face so I decided to wait for you out front. And when you got there, you saw me. You remember, sir? And what did you want to discuss? I'd like to discuss everything with you. Spend entire days in discussion. You're a very respectable, knowledgeable professor of agricultural science. I unfortunately was never able to pursue my studies but there's one subject I'm very good at and that's exactly the subject I wanted to discuss with you. Pardon me, sir, I hope I'm not taking up too much of your time. No. Please go ahead. Excuse me, sir. Would you mind if I sat down? It's a big subject. Please do. You're eating nutcake. Professor, in Tokat we have giant nut trees. We are famous for nuts. Have you ever been to Tokat? Unfortunately not. That's a shame, sir. If you ever visit, please do me the honor of staying with me. I spent my whole life in Tokat. Thirty-six years. Tokat is a beautiful area. Churchy. Beautiful country. Sir, pardon me. May I ask you a question? You're not a napist, are you? No. You're a Muslim. I am Muslim. I'm good at it. But sir, you're laughing. I travel all the way from Tokat in this load to get an answer to my question. How could you have urged me in Tokat? Sir, the newspapers don't, in the Istanbul newspapers don't talk about the fact that you keep our girls aware of the veil from attending your school. They prefer to talk about models and the latest scandals. But in Tokat we have a Muslim radio station, the standard which reports the injustices committed against believers. I do not limit the rights of believers. I fear God too. Sir, I've been on the road for two days to snowstorms. I think about you constantly. I knew you would say, I fear God. If you fear God, dear Professor Muri Yamaz, and if you believe that the Holy Quran is really the word of God, then tell me, dear sir, what do you think of verse 31 and the Surah of the Night? In that verse it is written that women should cover their heads and even their fists. Bravo, Professor! That's a clear, straightforward answer. But then how do you reconcile this order of God with your refusal to let our veil girls into your school? It is the law of our secular state not to admit veil girls to school. My dear Professor, is the law of the state created in God's law? Good question. But in a secular state these things are sad. Very true! Professor, I kiss your hand. Don't be afraid. Sir, here, here, here. Let me kiss your hand. May God bless us. Now, sir, please, can I ask you a question? Please, go ahead. Those being secular mean being atheist. No. In that case, why are our girls excluded from school in the name of secularism when they're only obeying their religion? Apparently, my son, this debate needs nowhere. We discuss these questions day in and day out on every television channel and what? Girls are not more ready to take on their headscarves than schools are to let them in. Pardon me, sir, but is denying our girls our hard-working, obedient girls of their right to education in agreement with our constitution, with freedom of education and religion? Isn't that at odds with your conscience, sir? If these girls were so obedient they would take off their headscarves. My son, what is your name? What do you do for a living? I work at the Sender Tea House in Tokat, sir, just next to the famous Pervan Hamam. It doesn't matter what my name is. All day, I listen to the standards. Sometimes I become obsessed with it as a free man who lives in a democratic country. I will find the person who obsesses me and asks him to his face to answer for this injustice. This is why I am asking you for an answer to my question, professor. Whose commandment is greater? The states or gods? We will get nowhere with this discussion, my son. What for talent is there? Are you going to report me to the police? Don't be afraid of me, professor. I hate terrorism. I believe in the love of God and in combat to ideas. That's why, even if I do have a nervous temperament, I never hit someone over the age. I only want you to respond to my question, professor. Where will the fail? It's clearly comfortable. In the seras, the Confederates and the lights and the holy Quran, the word of God, your conscience isn't troubled My son, the holy Quran, also orders us to cut off the ends of a thief. And yet the state doesn't cut off people's ends. Why don't you fight back? Very good answer, professor. But there is a world of difference between the deep armed and the women's under. Isn't there? According to the African-American professor Marvin King, a Muslim in countries where women wear the prescribed dress, rape and arrestment are practically non-existent. Professor, in making these bad girls uneducated and implored by an unkind woman, what are we trying to accomplish? To sell off the honor of women like in Europe? My son, I have finished my cake. Excuse me, I'll go. Sit there, sit there, sit there. And I won't have to use this. Do you see what it is? I've done it. Yes, yes, professor, you won't like that. You won't get angry with me. But with how far I've come to see you, I wonder if maybe you wouldn't want to listen to me, so I took precautions. My son, what is your name? I need to speak. I'm telling you this is my home. Does it matter? Professor, I'm a nameless defendant of the nameless heroes who fight for their faith and who are victims of injustice in this secular and materialistic country. I'm a member of no organization. I respect human rights. I'm against violence. I'm putting my gun back in my jacket and all I ask is that you answer my question. All right. The wings of these dedicated girls whose education has taken years. When a handful of them refuse to take off their heads cars, you call the police. I'm not the one who call the police. Professor, don't lie because you're a failure. When the police drag those girls through the dirt and took them to the station, did you see with a clear conscience that transforming transforming the veil into a symbol and turning this question into a political game has made our girls' lives even worse. What game, sir? Kill yourself. It's not a game. Son, you're getting angry. But if the veil becoming such a politicized issue is the work of outside forces trying to divide us and weaken Turkey, if you let these girls go to school, Professor, this would be a problem. Is it really up to me, son? All is. All this is on uncross orders. My own life covers your head. Don't give me that, Professor. Do you have a clear conscience? I know so, father. I didn't ask if you were a father. Listen, I know how to control myself, but if I get angry, all this is my right to get ugly. In prison, I reformed everybody in my section. They're all prey by the end. What was the question? Put away the gun. Don't try to talk me down. Does your conscience torment you? Bastard! Does the public around command you to install your elders don't you dare say the name of the Holy Quran again? And if you call for help, I'll kill you. Do you understand? I understand. So answer the question! What good does it do the country if women uncover themselves? Give me one good reason and I won't kill you. My dear child, I also have a daughter that she doesn't wear a scarf. A headscarf. She chose of her own accord to cover her head. My daughter chooses not to. I don't get involved. Why doesn't your daughter wear a veil? She's so kind of honest. Is that it? No! And my daughter told me Father, if there were a classroom full of girls wearing headscarves, I wouldn't dare enter without my head covered. I could put on a headscarf even if I didn't want to. But so? What's the problem if she covers her head even if she doesn't want to? You asked me to give you a reason. Bastard, you have believers beaten for the comfort of your daughter. Many Turkish women feel the same way. Now you understand a woman in Turkey cover themselves. And you only think about your daughter. You're proud that she walks around uncovered you dick. Don't point the gun at me, please. You're getting carried away for a minute. The assassin of the oppressor who persecutes the believer is a saint. But I feel sorry for you. So I give you one last chance. Give me one reason these decent girls should uncover themselves. If you can, I swear I won't kill you. If a woman takes off her headscarf to save her more respectable position in society. Maybe for your daughter who wants to play the artist. But strict religious dress actually allows a woman to protect herself from the kind of desires of men in the streets. As Martin King says if Elizabeth Taylor the movie star had worn her shak-shak in the last 20 years of her life she wouldn't have been ashamed of her weight gain and ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Are you laughing? Did I say something funny? Say it again. Why did you laugh? If I did it was unintentional. No, you're not sincere. I'm full of empathy for the 11 people of this country like you who have suffered. Don't flatter me. I'm not suffering at all. You're the one who has suffered for us. Let me tell you your fate. The justice of Islamic fires has already condemned you to death. The decision was a unanimous vote five days ago in Tokat and I was sent there to keep you. If you haven't laughed, if you have expressed regret, I like half part of you. Purely. Take this paper and read your condemnation. Read it out loud or kill you. The atheist professor newly realized my child I'm not an atheist. I'll kill you if you stop reading. Read. Read. Read. Come on. As an instrument on the secret plan to deliver the Muslims of Turkey to the west I have oppressed believers who did not want to uncover their heads. To the point that one of them committed suicide. My child, please. I objected this. This girl hanged herself because of the love of air. She had given away her virginity outside marriage. Shut up you pig. That's the type of thing your whole daughter does. My son, no. If you kill me, you'll compromise your whole future. Open your mouth. I'm going to shove my gun down your throat and make you pull the trigger. Then you'll see what suicide is. See what you have reduced me to. Let me think of my wife and daughter one last time. Think of the girls you persecuted. One of them killed herself. Say you're sorry. I'm sorry. My dear child, is it worth becoming an assassin and killing someone like me? Think! For God's sake! Are you here for an article on the elections and the suicide? No. I came here to marry you. I've thought about it, professor. In order to carry your sentence, I hung around in this dirty city for two days. I thought I was out of luck. I was going to head back to Tokat. If I came here for one last cup of tea. My child, you'll not be able to escape the road to block by the snow. Just as I was about to leave, God sent you to the new life tea house. If God doesn't forgive you, why should I forgive you? Say your last words. Say God's words. The state will hang you off. Say God's words. My son, don't do this. My son, don't do this. He shoots the director who crumbles to the floor. He fires several more times than leaves. Ha and Ipek also flee. With Ninjip. I have a question. Don't dig it the wrong way. If God doesn't exist, that means there's no pet. And the millions of people who live in mystery and oppression will never go to heaven. Then what's the meaning of their suffering? Why do we live and why do we suffer? God exists. Heaven exists. No. You're just saying that to make me feel better because we make you feel uncomfortable. As soon as you're in Germany again, you'll go back to thinking God doesn't exist. That I felt happy. Why couldn't I believe like you do? Because you're a snob from Istanbul. From Istanbul's snob, some believe in God. They believe in the same thing as the Europeans. They think that they're better than regular people. Maybe I was a snob in Istanbul. But in Germany, I was nothing. I was decomposing over there. Why didn't you go there? If I was rich, I would feel ashamed of myself and I would believe in God anymore. One day, inshallah, we will all be rich. My thoughts aren't so simplistic. I don't want to be rich. I want to be a writer. I'm writing a science-fiction novel. Maybe one day it'll be published in The Lancet. That's a newspaper here in Paris. But what I really like is for it to be published in the Istanbul papers. It's some poses of communism. I can give you a summary if you like. Could you tell me that it wouldn't be published in Istanbul? It's very short. God, it's the year 3579 on the planet, Gaza. People are very rich, but they haven't abandoned their spiritual life. On this red planet, at the Science and Theology High School are two inseparable friends, Nietzsche and Passenger. At night in the dormitory, they gather side by side and through the crystal ceiling they watch the blue snowflakes disintegrating like decomposing planets. One day, they meet a beautiful virgin named Iskender. At first sight, they both fall madly in love with her. They realize that one of them will have to die since they can't both love the same girl. So, they promise each other that whoever dies first will come back, no matter from how many light years away to tell the other what's in the next world. One evening, Nietzsche finds that bullet in the body of his friend Fossil. One year later, he marries Iskender and another man. They shine in interplanetary spotlight on the city of cars full of love, like crazies. Suddenly, a TV turns on and Fossil's face, full of bullet holes, appears on the screen. Expose my killer until he is punished. There will be no peace for me either in this world or the next. I haven't decided yet. What do you think? Do you think it will sound? You think that this life is only preparation for the next life? Not exactly. Fossil wants us to be happy here and now, in this life. It's very complicated. Who is Isshelm? It's not her real name. She's the leader of the headscarf girls, a rebel. Before, she was a model in Istanbul. She was even on TV. She never bought in her life. She came to cars to do a commercial for playback shampoo. First, she made fun of the power girls, but higher power converted her and she joined the cars. There she is. Isshelm, in this room. Happy to bring you back. How did you know I was here? In cars. Everyone knows everything of art. Let me introduce you to my friend Eji. Theology student and science fiction novelist. Brings people closer together. Did you see this poster? Human beings are gods, masterpieces and suicide is an insult. Think about visiting a suicide. You're going to pour out your story to add your paper in Istanbul in Germany. I could never describe to anyone what goes on here that suffering is absurd. It makes me want to cry. Your bourgeois from Istanbul. The absurdity comes from you. If one day you ever truly suffer, you'll start believing in God then and there. But Tesla may suffer and she acted like a non-believer by killing herself. Yes, Tesla may kill herself which is a sin but I still love her all my life. A girl who did something harshly condemned by religion can still be loved. With all your heart so we can believe in God and still disobey his commandments in our hearts. The Quran is toward God and his direct orders are not for discussion. That doesn't mean there's no place for discussion within our religion. But sorry, I'm not about to discuss my religion with an atheist or even a secularist. You're right. And I'm not one of those Muslims who will follow all over themselves trying to convince a secularist to their good faith. That's twice you told me I'm right but you don't believe either one. Right again. Najif is hopelessly in love with a girl named Ishram. Ishram? He told me that she was a model and she was going to show her legs and the bottle for commercial. He also told me that she was an atheist and mocked the covered girls at the teacher's college and then was converted by a higher power. Only one part of that is true. Before I actually met them I was sure I'd make fun of them before I approached them with a wicked curiosity. And then? They became my classmates. Their shoes. For years their fathers and mothers told them cover your head and all of a sudden they're told uncover your head if the government wants. So then one day I couldn't do it for a day. One revolutionary gesture and act of freedom but everyone came down so hard on me with police, the state, journalists. I couldn't just walk away from it. They arrested us for demonstrating without a permit. On this day, leaving prison, I give up. I never believed anyway all cars would have spat in my face. Before I was an atheist like you and God put me through this to set me on the right path. You're looking at me like you are. Looking at you like I did you? Yes, you are. You are superior. What about your father? What does he say? My father was against the veil. He's afraid of prison but he supports us 100% because we're opposing the state. Tonight one of my friends on them who also wears a headscarf is coming over. She wants to take it off because of the pressure but she can't make herself approved it. And your father? Does he ever leave those up? Rarely. Gemini? They say gemini lie a lot but I'm not sure about that. You're not sure? Gemini lie a lot or do you lie a lot? If you believe in astrology then you might know why today is important to me. My sister told me. Does your sister tell you everything? Here we have two past times talking and watching TV. Sometimes we would vote at the same time. My sister really is beautiful isn't she? Yes. She's really beautiful. You're beautiful. Are you going to tell her that too? We are secret. Let's wait and start friendship. Don't say anything about it to my father. I won't. What did he want? Nothing. Did he say anything about us? My sister and my father? I don't recall him mentioning you though. Everyone is afraid of you. We're afraid of you too. Scene 13. On the stage of the national theater Kaab reads his poem Encouraged by applause The actress Funda Esser enters covered head to toe before revealing her belly dancer costume underneath. She dances provocatively. The religious high schoolers boo and shout insults. Two actors of Sunay's company dressed as virgins, longists arrive to kill Funda. They are chased off by Sunay. Soldiers arrive on stage. Take aim at the audience and fire. Screams. Later, bodies lie under sheets on stage watched by armed military guards. Ka lifts a sheet, recognizes Najeeb's body. He lifts it up by the shoulders and kisses it. The military coup has succeeded. Sunay Zayin, allied with the army, has taken control of the city. Scene 14. Makeshift military headquarters. Every day the eagle of melancholy spreads its wings in my soul. But I'm still standing so get a hold of yourself. All's well that end the idiots in Istanbul and Ankara who call themselves journalists. Tried to say that we had lost the public labor. But we never gave up. And it all wasn't always easy. Some years, the worst years, we would show up in these miserable little towns where we couldn't find a place to perform much less a place to sleep. So we would go from door to door looking for someone somewhere who seemed sympathetic to modern art. In those moments the eagle in my chest would ruffle its feathers and it seemed like it would suffocate me. But I'm resistant. We'd perform anywhere. Sidewalks, streets, empty classrooms, anywhere. I devoted ten years of my life trying to pull my brothers out of despair. The guys were thrown into jail by communist communists, western agents, Jehovah's Witnesses, pimps, prostitutes. They tortured us, stoned us, but they learned to love their players. They tasted the freedom and the happiness of theater. A great actor has it in like the grain of sand, the untapped power that has accumulated and he keeps with any lessons he has absorbed. His mastery of himself is exceptional. No one can guess at his power before he appears on stage. And all his life on the bears on stage are the most lavish effects he searches for the path that would lead him to true freedom. And lucky enough to find it, he must follow it fearlessly to the first to remark that history and theater was made of the same clock. And theater, history distrued roles and performance only the bravest step onto the stage of history. So, when the snowstorm hit cars blocking the road and straddling the prefect I knew it was the chance of a lifetime for my theater company to join forces with the army before my heart and I derive ourselves into history. And I will not let that opportunity pass me by. In three days when the snow has melted, the state is going to demand an explanation. Not because blood was spilled but because they weren't the ones to spill it. And the people of cars will hate you. You and your scary play. What will you do then? I'm not afraid of death. As for the people of cars we could hang someone on TV to make an example of them and they'd sit there like statues. Practically frozen already. We know that the Israeli we know that the Islamists are preparing suicide attacks. If you hang someone you'll only encourage more terrorism. Funda Ezer Celebrate an actress and my wife as friends. Why didn't you point out anyone when the police showed you the suspects? I didn't recognize anyone. Seeing how much you cared for that boy and indeed who took you to blue the soldiers wanted to arrest you. You arrived from Germany exactly one day before the coup and you have been to be at the exact location where the director was killed. Makes you look a little suspicious. They wanted to bring you in for questioning. I stopped them. Thank you for that. No one understands why you kissed the dead body of the boy who brought you to blue. I don't know. He was innocent. Sincere. I thought he lived for a hundred years. The police also put microphones and shakes at a teen's house. You kissed his hand. You were in tears explaining how you believed in God. No one understands why you did that. How these poets are becoming religious in a panic before they belong to state power. You'd be ashamed, wouldn't you, if the Europeans saw what we do? Do you know how many people they had to be able to found the modern world you admire so much? At the church strung up a boatload of dreamers like you on day one and kicked this through your head. The religious high schoolers you saw today in prison, they memorized your face. They told their bonds on anybody, anything to make themselves heard. What's more, because you read your poem very modern at the performance yesterday. They think you were part of the plot. The secular aren't understanding intellectuals. Without an army, the religious fanatics would chop them into little pieces. When they turned this country into a second Iran, do you really think they'll remember the weak-hearted liberal who shed tears over a young Islamist? When that day comes, they'll kill you. Can I wear it on a stage? Of course. Oh, well just so you don't end up with holes in your nice coat, I'm going to give you a bodyguard. After that, I'll announce the curfew on television. There are no terrorists in cars, I need to be afraid of. Don't kid yourself. The only way for them to take power is terrorism, and they know it. Our fears turn out to be that we'll be sent back to the dark ages. I was just like you when I was young. I rented the streets of Nishantash in Beolu. I ate up western films. I read everything by sack and soda. And I believed Europe was our future to see our world destroy itself. See your sisters forced to cover their heads. See, Poland's banned because they were empires. How can you be indifferent to all that? You are from my world. No one else in Paris has read T.S. End-Up. What do you want from me? If I were not here, you could not stay alive in this city. It's not to the religious fanatics all you want. You would still find up, find yourself with holes in your coat. In cars, I am your only protector. Without my friendship, you'd find yourself trembling in the jail cell after being tortured. Your friends at Jumeil don't believe in you. They believe in the army. In that case, confess what you hid from the police this morning. Being here, I've started to believe in God. But it's possible that I'm still hiding it from myself. Your values alone. Your God is not your God. You can't believe like a poor person without being one of them. If you eat what they eat, if you live among them, if what angers them, angers you, can you can't believe in their God. But that's not the issue. In a half an hour, I'm going on television to speak to the people of cause. I want to tell them some good news. I'll tell them that the director's assassin has been arrested. Can I tell them that you have been arrested? But I seem to identify anyone. What are we going to do with our poet whose soul is in Europe, whose heart is with the religious high schools, and whose head is all mixed up? He's a good boy. He cries over this business. He's in love. He's in love. Only a true poet can worry about love during a revolution. That's not a true poet. He's a true... Listen to me. And understand that the smartest thing you can do for yourself is to help us. Is blues misty. Some two cars for politics, but for love. He disappeared in the blink of an eye before the operation last night. He's somewhere in the cars. And he will contact you again. So, I suggest wearing a microphone and a transmitter in your coat to have nothing to fear in terms of your safety. And as soon as you leave, we'll arrest you. So watch out for Clanford. She reports everything back to blue, even what guests say at her father's dinner table. Never heels for blue. What is it that's so exceptional about this person anyway? Anything? What? Blue. Why does everyone in the world end up falling over this assassin? Why is he a legend? Can you explain this fascination to me? I'll take you back to your hotel in Detroit. I prefer to walk on it. Hit on mine. Car exits. A plain clothes police officer follows him. Scene 15. Hotel Calpalas with Cadife. Room 217. Seat great room. Did the police know we're here? I have some court staff following you, but for now, they don't know we're here. Eventually, they'll know. But as of right now, we're free here. It'll be our only moment of freedom in the car. So enjoy. Oh, this coat protects me from the cold. Plus, it's cold. Stayers are scared of you. Want to make you scared this. Make my sister happy. She's a good person. Do you think she loves me? Of course she loves you. She must love you. You're very attractive. Do you think she'll follow me to Germany? She makes you very handsome, but she doesn't trust you. Trust takes time. Inpatient men like you don't love a woman they appropriate her. Can we tell you that? In this city, we never had time. Blue has a very important message for you. I'm being followed. They'll arrest him. We'll all be tortured. There was a raid in the house. The police hear everything he says. Blue knows he's being tapped to his message to the West with keep your nose out of our suicides. Now that there are more important matters at hand, he wants to send a new message. It's impossible to get anywhere in this city because it comes twice a day for deliveries at the kitchen door which gives out onto the courtyard. Then it finishes the round and there's a tarp over the goods. The delivery guide can be trusted. You want me to hide under a tarp like a thief? I couldn't. There are plenty of times. Moving around the city without anybody seeing or knowing. If you work with Blue, I'll help you leave. I want her to marry you. What is that? Who wouldn't want our sister to be happy? Okay, I'll come. But first, tell me why you trust me. You're a dervish. He believes God has given you innocence for life. Does Epec know that God gave you this gift? Why should she know it? Blue thinks that. Please tell me everything that Epec thinks of me. I already told you everything. But in Germany, what do I have to do to make her trust me? In the first instance, a woman knows what kind of man she's dealing with. Who he is, if she'll love him. Catch up to what her heart has decided to do. If you're on doing something, tell her all the nice things you feel about her. Why you love her? Why you want to marry her? Is there a theater where you might take her? In Frankfurt? Film Forum Herbst? Sermons Center. Any theaters called Ahambra? Rulia? Oh, yes, yes. I did some theater in Istanbul when I was in school. Once, they offered me the role of a veiled girl in a German-Turkish co-production. Epec will be happy in Germany. Mr. was made to be happy, but she doesn't know it. Destroyed her not to have a child. She'd be unhappy when she's so beautiful. So brilliant. Epec was always the perfect child. That's all I heard growing up. And at that time, we weren't so poor. You're not exactly poor now. But we live in cars. In middle school. The biology teacher in Missouri and me would always compare me to Epec in front of my classmates. Kadife cries. Ka moves to console her. She moves away abruptly and takes out the gun. Don't be afraid. I'm not going to kill you. I'm not having her. You're the one who asked me here. That's true, but the police could have anticipated that we were planning to be intelligence agents. You could have put a wire on you. Take off your coat and leave it on the corner of the vent. Hurry up. Ka doesn't. She packs down his coat. Drop your shirt. Out of the chest, there may be hundreds of people walking around cars wearing wires. Ka takes off his blazer, shirt, and pants. Turn around. You will not say a word to Blue about our conversation or our friendship. You will say nothing about Epec, especially not that you love her. He doesn't like that sort of vulgarity. If you mention it and he doesn't blow your brains out, I will. To be into your spirit better than a jing. Make you talk. Once or twice. Got it? Be respectful with his adolescent boy. I'll feed to themselves just because you're up here with such admiration. Don't give too shit about you. They are terrifying of people like Blue. I know. They bugged you. They'd be all over us. The delivery guy moved the tarp. His son was killed by police. And enjoyed the trip. Ka and Karife leave and slip under the tarp. Scene 20 in Blue's cell after he is arrested by Sunay Zayin's men. Ka gives Blue a pack of marmaris. So good, sir. Who are you? Who are you spying for today? I've given up spying. Now I'm in intermediary. That's even worse. Spies deliver information wholesale which is useless most of the time. Intermediaries, on the other hand, pretend to be neutral and they meddle in things that don't concern them. What's your interest in all this? To get out of this awful city safe and sound. I only see Sunay would trust an atheist from the west here to spy on us. What are you mediating today? Your freedom. In exchange, Sunay wants Karife to act in display tonight at the National Theater. She will have her head covered like a Spanish woman. Then, disgusted by the honor killings in the play, she'll take off her headscarf. If you accept, Sunay will let you go. It's a fantastic celebration. Your head is worth a high price. Thank you for taking the time to come. Tell them that I refuse. If you fail in your deviation and don't succeed in escaping the city, it won't be my fault. It will be because of you bragging about your atheism. In this country, you can't brag about being an atheist unless you've got the army behind you. I didn't brag about being an atheist. You're not afraid of dying? Your question is a threat. I'm not afraid. It's fun and curiosity. And yes, I'm very good. I can't do anything about it. These despots hanging me. Even if I give in to all their demands, these murderers wouldn't keep their word. They want me to confess to crimes I didn't commit. And it may be a bill pardoned with their repentance law. I always pity the idiots who let themselves be fooled by those lies. The last minute they abandoned the causes they defended and betrayed their entire lives before I die. I want those who come after me to know the truth about me. On February 20th, the day of my execution, I declared that I do not regret any of my political acts. My childhood was spent in the quiet, unassuming world of my father who secretly frequented a Sufi community. Wanting to expose my father, I became a left-wing atheist. I married and I separated. It was a difficult time that I got through it. Because of my rage against the West, I admired the revolution in Iran and became a Muslim again. I believed Imam Khomeini when he said, it is more important today to defend Islam with weapons in hand and to pray. I escaped to Germany after the military coup. I was wounded in my right foot at Bosnia, fighting alongside the Czechs. When I was in Bosnia during the Serbian siege, I was wounded in Bosnia and became a Sufi. I left her too. I couldn't stay more than two weeks in the same city because of my political activities. I think it is sometimes necessary to kill the enemies of Islam. But, as of today, I have neither killed nor ordered the killing of anyone. Because of the young women committing suicide. Suicide is the worst of sins. My poems are my testament and I desire that they be published. You don't have to die. That's why I'm here. In Munich, I saw a film with Marlon Brander Byrne Black slaves who worked sugarpane fields or bolts. There's a dude and the leader is arrested. The morning used to be hanged. The representative of the colonists, Marlon Brander, burst into the tank where he's being held prisoner and freezing. But, he refuses to escape. Why? He understands that if they hang him, he will become a legend. And the natives will brandish his name like the flag of the revolt for years to come. Yes, but they don't show that. Instead, we see Marlon Brander, the agent who tried to murder him. I'm not an agent. You don't get so hung up on the word agent. I'm an agent too. An agent of Islam. I'm nobody's agent. They wouldn't have put anything in this Malboro until we could might resolve with them. The Malboro Reds are the best thing the Americans have given the world. Smoke them to the end of my days. If you think this through, you could spend the next 40 years smoking Malboro. That's exactly what I mean when I call you an agent. This type of blackmail is what an agent does. Listen, it would be completely absurd to let yourself be killed by these fascists. You're never going to be a revolutionary icon. Revolutionary is like you get their bodies tossed into the sea from helicopters. These people are like lambs. They're attached to their religion. But in the end, they obey the government. Barely 20% vote for the Islamists. Islamists only have 20% of the votes. Then why did the army stage a coup? Say it, since you're an impartial intermediary. I am impartial. No! No, you are an agent of the West. You're the Europeans, a slave who refuses freedom You don't even know you are a slave. How do you think you can wear a wig under her scarf? So when she takes it off, no one will see her hair. I will not make you drink wine. I am writing my own story. I don't pretend to be a European and I am not going to make a deal with you. I have another idea. The National Theater will be empty. First the camera will show the woman's hair. I find it suspicious that you would go through so much trouble to save me. I've never come so happy in my life. And I want to preserve this happiness. Thank you so much. I'm in love. The woman I love is moving to Frankfurt. Who is the woman that you love? Yipek. Yipek's sister. It is a gift from God. He wants to share one's happiness with the person who is about to be executed. Let's say that I accept your offer so that you can leave this city safe and happy. So that they act in the soonest play. So as not to compromise for sister's happiness what guarantee is that they'll let me go? I knew you would ask that. God puts his finger to his lips, unbuttons his blazer and makes a show of turning off the recording device and says, I promise you they will free you first. Kadife will get on stage until you can assure her that you've been free. But for her to agree I need to write out the terms of your agreement first. Blue hands in one of the sheets of paper on the table. Right here that you are the intermediary and the guarantor of my safe departure from Carst in exchange for Kadife's participation in this play in which she will take off her headscarf without compromising her honor by betraying her or if you do not keep your word it will be your punishment. Whatever happens to you will happen to me. Right. If Kadife agrees you'll be freed in a manner of your choosing before she takes off her hands off. Write all that down decide where and how you will be released. Carst turns the recorder and turns her sweater back on in an obvious way. Without a minimum level of trust we're not going to reach an agreement. You have to believe that the government will keep its promise. Do you think Kadife will agree to the final agreement? Talk to me about your happiness. I've never loved anyone like this. He begs my last chance to be happy. What is happiness? Finding a world and making emptiness an oppression. To hold someone in your arms as if they're the whole world. Car, strung with inspiration writes the poem Chess Game. For years I couldn't write anymore. In cars all the channels of poetry have reopened and reconnected to the love of God. I don't want to shatter your delusions but your love of God comes out of Western Romains. Here, if you believe in God like a European you're ridiculous and you can't seriously believe that you actually believe. You don't belong to this country. You aren't even at Turk anymore. First try being like everybody else. Then try believing in God. Do you have a message for Kadife? Be careful. You might become a target. Whether it's here or in your beloved Europe you'll always be on your hands and knees in front of them. Be happy is enough for me. All right, go away. And get this in your head. If you only look for happiness you'll never find it. Scene 21 makes shift military headquarters. So this guy wants to be freed before Kadife takes off her heads off. He's no idiot. Kadife won't do the same thing. They are the state now. Why should we trust them? You are staging this coup for the beauty of art, aren't you? All your life you fought for political art. If you want to commit an ordinary political act then don't free blue before the show. What? If you think that Kadife taking off her scarf in front of cars will be an artistic and political act at the highest order then you wouldn't have to do it. Sunay Zayin All my life I've reported the events that came true but I don't know anything about the theater. So write me an article about your play tonight and tomorrow's paper will be perfect. Take this now. Headline Death on stage Subhead Famous actor Sunay Zayin slain during play last night. Last night during the historic performance at the National Theater Kadife known as a head scarf girl was overtaken by the spirit of the Enlightenment and tore off her veil before firing her loaded gun at Sunay Zayin Sunay Zayin the greatest villain in the tradition. Having arrived in our city three days ago as in the series of Enlightenment Sunay Zayin and his theater company's revolutionary work has our very lives. In the latest play adapted from Dr. Thomas Kidd a known influence on Shakespeare Sunay Zayin conveyed his theatrical vision as a conduit of the Enlightenment after more than 20 years of Herculanean Herculanean effort and superhuman labor forgotten villages of Anatole in the heightened emotional world of this modern and audacious drama Kadife the outspoken leader of the so-called head scarf girls took off her veil on stage and fired multiple shots at the play's symbol of equal Sunay Zayin's character the great Turkish man of theater Sunay Zayin was like Kidd little recognized during his lifetime but his own stage death was a tragedy for the audience more devastating than life itself while the audience understood that the play was about the young woman liberating herself from tradition they could not accept that Sunay Zayin was really dying so much a man at the theater that he continued to act bullets riddled and gushing blood and forget his final words nor the gift he made of his life I will publish it exactly as it is for the first time as someone who has predicted dozens of events I will pray this one doesn't come to pass but we assert surely you're not going to die to push theatrical truth to its limit to the point the young man tomorrow once the roads have opened and the snow has melted like that will no longer mean anything to the people of course good serve the gazette, we have done our work we will prepare you newspaper I accept blue and cat face chargers in the street Ka is captured by soldiers and taken roughly to the police where intelligence officers tie him to a chair Den Mirko a former military officer has his soldiers beat up Ka when Ka refuses to reveal the whereabouts of blue Den Mirko tells him that Ipek was blue's mistress four years ago before blue's relationship with Kadife by playing audio clips of tapped phone conversations between Ipek and blue he also reveals that Ipek and blue have called each other three times in the last two days scene 23 Hotel Papalas I will be happy Yes we will I will be happy I know about your relationship with blue Hasin Fey has been beating me up to your phone conversations that have been tapped for four years I heard everything I could vomit up my life You can forget him It's true I was very much in love with you I was very in love How much? Maybe that's because you were never with another man besides Muhtar Turkish women don't often have the opportunity to have plenty of women in Europe I'm Turkish too The reason you want to go to Frankfurt is to forget him I can't fall in love in two days If we leave together I will fall in love So you don't love me You're still in love with blue What is so special about him? I can't That's the only bad thing that can be said about him But he's a murderer That's ridiculous he wouldn't hurt a fly Give me my love I packed my suitcase Scene 25 At the National Theatre On stage The Spanish tragedy In traditional Spanish dress with a headscarf and a small lace veil over her face She is followed by Sulay Zayin who stops behind her Kadi Fey tears off the lace veil and tosses it to the side Then slowly removes her headscarf and tosses it to the side as well What beautiful hat I'm jealous of the man Kadi Fey takes out a gun and fires at tonight He crumbles saying that he will never understand modern art Epilogue In the wild tradition dies The soldier's killed He was killed in a back alley in Frankfurt A bass string of a guitar He would understand us from far away The state direction and sometimes summary of scenes because he was always ready for what he did We took friends here as we began that I thought this was too amateurish but I said it anyway in the novel and whatever happens to Cup in the first 200 pages of the novel one third or more than one third here happened to me So you wrote the poem about snow? No In fact that the logic of the book is such that that we are reading a book about most poetry that we don't have the poem and then the whole book is a sort of commentary for preparation for the poems which are it remembers or the poems come to him during all these three days and so he remembers or he writes the book of poetry but in the end we don't have that poetry and after the book was published then there are certain poets who wrote the poems that are written and sent that to me Thank you so much I really think you plugged something on the tree of knowledge of that book that condensed through all of the three days that snow that timeless covering as I said that brand new the Pasternak poem about the snow Listening for the first time to the English translation I'm sometimes trying to remember some words that of course this is a novel that I wrote and my memory was good I am remembering so I remember what I said in the original but in my memory is strange it doesn't sense that I forget that drum what happens first what it is why does he do this why the poetry or the words what they say to each other and I remember also adaptation by Blandin and what that is he covers the best parts we have little don't take that I in the end don't know what is kept inside I'm not following that closely but I attend the intent the first in Strasbourg and it was the same thing I have a sense that the first part is more funny and the ending is sometimes get to be too serious and pretentious and also that enlightened pretentious news of Sunazai well played here but I was sometimes wondering whether the audiences get that because they're also like Sunazai nobody enjoyed they're jokes about the enlightened pretentious Sunazai the audience should be a bit different than what if you play in the same way here well actually in your novel but also in the play of Justira is at the center you also in the novel you reference to Molière and Braft and the plays of Hugo what does Justira mean to you not much, I'm a normal person not much for giving the opportunity to be cryptical as they say and while I'm in that in Fistar I can write a book of this my father took us to in Boudre-le-Michantuch in Peters in early 1960s where we were considered willing or sometimes walked and met Thaï in Sunday afternoon and watched their talk play and so I can here I watched went to a lot of theaters when it was also important event in the world or in Europe or in Turkey that in my early 20s when I was alone didn't have a girlfriend I used to go through a tax in modern state government state theater had to see adaptations of Chekhov or Shakespeare and remember we were watching Max Fritsch on the door by myself the best seat I was very happy in 1972 at very long play very interesting in the novel as well on the adapted play there's a line of Hegel and that's still in history made of the same material is that the line do you think this is how it is now that Sunat Zaini which is pretentious and like a voice speaking I am not Sunat Zaini clean Sunat Zaini is a drama man and he has some of the things that he believed I also believed in but in the end he wants some light of importance for the modern he picks up Hegel saying I mean it's important Hegel's view of history and the same things but I don't think that theater I wouldn't say that theater is a stage and history is a stage they are equal in India theater is also literature and we have to be modest about it I think actually about the tone what I admire so much in the novel it is so very serious how did you find that there was a result yes in fact that I also that finding that it's not a voice in fact let's call it tone finding that tone helped me to write this novel like in my novels I've been thinking about the novel for many years about associate the Turkish series dramatical problems of modernism tradition, democracy egalitarianism and also tradition and Islam let's put tradition and Islam here and modernism and democracy this year and Turks are arguing and arguing about it so I wanted to write something about all but so serious I have to find a bright tone if it's so serious then you would be in a position to dramatize, dramatize and make dramatical big statements about what's happening and what I want to say to my readers Turkish international that in fact the focus which added some distance to this fight you're having here you're very similar to each other maybe partly my peaceful liberal attitude partly because I was also harassed by this kind of authoritarian voices being on the secular side being on the traditional side so I wanted to cover everything but in a light way and it just didn't happen once for example that one day I was planning to write this novel for many years one day I saw in a magazine that there was an interview with a young Islamist who said that he was writing signed first signed Islam in science fiction now then and I improved I improved the elements so I made the planet's gazali planet it's an edition so forth and so so I picked up the humor from reality that of course is not humorous but for example this guy who travels from Koka actually from Yolstas where he was a shuttle professor that was also an interview whether to look at it in a humorous way is yes, my crime or sin when it happens you cry but that is finding this balance but where it's staged the text or it's also a possibility of overdoing things or underdoing things it's a matter of such fun tuning which I see today there are some problems you know I want to see this take notes but I'm generally speaking I was very happy about the balance of seriousness and humor and towards then I think it was a bit as soon as I did the pretensions were not understood in India the audience should laugh at those moments and they were not laughing I took it too seriously so I think that the great French philosopher Mosia who says art actually is an anticipation of the future whatever we think now is happening to see or get a feeling of the atmosphere I don't know exactly when you start writing it and this powder could pressure cook on those three days there how do you look back at it how many years ago was it first of course, Kant spent three days but I spent more than three days, again I look Kant I went the idea of to write a novel if it was to write a novel about Turkey making a small town cut off from the rest of Turkey so that there will be a military coup and it will be a sort of a little place on its own for a while then I thought this cannot only be done if that place is too cold it snows and this happens in Turkey that the roads are blocked and the place is independent for a while so I thought, I've been to a small town of cars, northern eastern Turkey once so I thought I'd be there all day and then my coinsome has helped some major Turkish newspaper wanted me to be a columnist at that time I published and my names read and they entered like you're a columnist once no, but I'm shooting you a test car and call your friends at cars and he said, okay, I'll arrange that and after he arranged that I went there and exactly like what I used to commerce, went around to the government they sort of announced that I'm there, so suddenly my visit to cars, to cover there were media elections my visit to cars turned out to be something important because it will be published in Turkish national newspapers that was local elections then local elections in old Turkey so they were exaggerating that so everyone, all the parties who wanted to say something to Turkey then everyone called maybe also want to talk to you fundamentalist party called this party was I I felt like a diploma because everyone was giving material for my mouth and very interesting and in fact they were right and they were not all there what they wanted to write of course I also wrote my ideas so it's a yeah, I think we adjusted Michael friend is a playwright and he said in a good play everybody's right and so what you do so what I said about the charm of first love in a way to play about what they remember and that we're happy also about the father figure which is kind of the series she doesn't want to make life and the father love and the father's in the house she can't leave to Frankfurt because the father is there and we don't really see anybody's hanging over it it's that general observation you have on the series and I don't think the father is strong the idea of the father may be strong in the play of the novel but the father if they can tell if the father is I think extremely weak he has liberal ideas and his daughters are happy with Islam and so is he and he says A it doesn't be I don't think they are in fact I also have criticism of the scene where at the end of the play novel or whatever they are talking and they are talking arguing in love and they are talking about this later and I decided to tell to blame them privately and that was the question and the father who seems so in a way but in fact all the decisions we have the women who survive in London is actually which is surprising about father not to stay or to go back so she kind of yes but maybe you're right I don't see I think Kadife's father is an authoritarian father meaning meaning an average Turkish father he is less authoritarian than average Turkish father this is how I feel and they are not afraid of their father these are relatively speaking liberated girls what do we mean by liberation we can discuss but they are strong girls differently their father did not crush them I saw a lot of crushed girls in Turkey their fathers were strong here we have a weak father where the girls are strange this is how I think of them but you can say that father left patriarchal society as turkeys but this father does not represent that father or is not that father I think in one way in writing if you were rather someone to be a painter and before you were taking so many photos why do you write so why do you write thank you I am very happy to hear that I wrote a man a lecture in Stockholm I delivered two pages of explaining why I write first there is no one single question that we write to honor many sentiments we have and many people think that we write for one reason and we write for many many reasons sometimes we are angry sometimes politics sometimes we like because we started and now sometimes there is another reason sometimes just to be alone we don't want to work you know so forth and so there are no one single reason to be alone maybe by last day I want to make a remark if I remember right looking at the problems they are like two ends not the Shakespearean and in a blood bath or people survive but extremely unhappy so looking at the very big picture of the world we are in what are thoughts you have at the moment this play is in a way it needs to be associated with them both as drama so maybe Shakespearean and also it's as they say about Czecho a play of atmosphere where there is a father and no one is in that sense very strong they have all mistakes this or that and also I like Czechovia so let's go to the question let's put up some little bit of light in the audience and if possible really questions and not comments and really perhaps also focusing a bit on this thing so one, two and what was the third one here somewhere so let me start over here we have a microphone since we're recording it and you can bring it over really wonderful evening I enjoyed very much your text and in a way I can relate about what was happening in the country they described with my country, rather your big country we are very small country so this play is a question of identity individual identity of the individuals and also the identity of the country so my question is critical about the influences that the West has on your country at least I didn't see in the text any positive that has come from the West now that you said this I have to be critical of your question are you just into the question class the Turkish is a big nation and certainly you can model, define your identity and protect it I come from a population of Macedonians so I have a question where the big countries are trying to destroy the identity and to erase how we can protect our identity yeah but that's not my problem I didn't like this I don't think this is also I was thinking I started seeing something else what was that that's not the next question the next question was open sure if I was not mistaken you were full time living in Turkey and you were riding this snow now and again if I was not mistaken you said that after riding this you wouldn't ride any Portugal snow after snow yes but I said this I did not you have to question in today's Turkey would you even think of riding snow in today's yes I can you said that I would not ride a Portugal snow after this that's a misconception I said this many times before I published this snow to point out the fact that Portugal snow is a limited snow I will explain why I think so and and it's not very interesting in the end I wrote this novel a standout set to put a mirror to the quality of situation in Turkey all the partners are there all the groups are there secularists army liberals a bit softer leftist softer rightist fundamentalist nation all the spectrum all the Turkish parties are there and I wanted to write the novel and also there were things at that time that seemed so obvious to me but I didn't understand why people didn't acknowledge that so I wanted to dramatize all the things that I want to say about Turkish politics at that time I don't think today too I am not saying President so and so you're bad or Ahmed Bey or this party bad I'm not saying that I'm so showing the novel that you cannot write with because of they say and that cannot be done that one cannot do that is not free speech Portugal free speech in Turkey that is different that this novel there was not true that this novel was not picked up as attacked when I wrote this novel that free speech or you could defend the Kurds or at that time there were victims Islamists you can talk about this in a very hard way the novel is full of people as we have seen who are put into prison at that time Turkey was not free speech today Turkey is not free speech today and at that time it was also everyone was put with some excuse to check that's a long tradition maybe one or two more questions if there is one maybe from our drama talk what was the experience for you to work here in New York you just are here for months and performing in China how was your experience creating it here in New York in China it was I can say a big adventure and very big experience for us we didn't expect the reaction of the audience what was the reaction it depends of talents but because of topic subject I think for them in China and because of the problem with the oil in China we were very present and we were a little bit scared at the beginning especially in Shanghai but because we know that there was a lot of intellectual problems in the country but we were surprised in a good way about the reaction because mostly the people who were coming to see the audience they were quite young between 20 and 28 so when you are coming from Europe we dream this kind of audience young audience we were surprised for one thing because in China the audience is not quite like in western so at the beginning I have to give some words to tell them to put down and switch their phones and things like this but after that we were so surprised because it was 4 hours with the intermission and we were playing big theater 1500 people and so at the intermission we lose maybe 200 people because people were coming with their parents their parents were coming sometimes with small girls with their children they were thinking that the snow is a tail so they were surprised you know and so they stay until intermission and sometimes we really feel that it was too strong especially because inside the play the moment of the coup we did it by a movie it's a movie because when I created the play it was just after the attacks in Paris after the attack you know in this theater so for me and for the team it was very difficult you know to I also want to say a few things I also can I'm sorry to interrupt Fred the staging handling re-adapting the adaptation of this book is programmatic let me give you one example this scene where of the school and the guy who is the funny scene or whatever dramatic scene that he in the end takes out his gun was when the book was translated around I think one or two years after 9-11 was very popular in America and also in Europe also I want to say this I I wrote this novel 90% before 9-11 in fact before 9-11 no one knows this I always tell my friends you know before 9-11 there was a good very well researched profile of Usana Bin Laden in New York so I was carrying that when I was writing my novel and in fact two mentions of Usana Bin Laden one a little gossip which was probably true that I heard from my Turkish journalist friends who were friendly with the state that Usana Bin Laden wanted to organize killing of Russian sex workers who came to Turkey or Ukraine or to Turkey and in northern eastern Turkey there were whatever but before I published my two months or three months of publication of the novel it was all around so I deleted Usana Bin Laden's out of the novel and I'm telling all these people after 9-11 a lot of people thought oh something new happened it's not new all the controversies here I describe were old but when I saw that small European radio station or this dialogue between the killer and the professor it got to be really a sort of a sensualist reproduction of a part of my play to trash my normal models it got to be that way while they were already permissions from my age I said I don't want this to be only this part to be used because they were using it the way I did not want it to be used while it's very provocative around the other hand the feeling is right the management or playing of this novel you have to adapt and there are always Islamists are doing something someplace and then there are always angry voices coming so while we are here a novel a play and in the end it is why I say political novel is an impossible shun because you write novels or at least I write novels in which I try to identify with everyone that is why people think that when I say you are a western spy dating I'm talking there or whatever and I say and then make a joke I think I'm making fun of these characters I'm trying to see Germany to the point of view of an exiled Islamist to the point of view of an exiled leftist there are so many points of view in a good novel and that author is the writer's point of view this is the kind of novel I believe but in a political novel my God the writer is supposed to take the flag some of the characters and run I'm not that kind of person and that I don't enjoy and I don't have friends who would follow me and I don't know and if there's not not anyone then I think you can be a good novelist and on the other hand with that sensibility you cannot write to the kind of political novel you want that writer's right and so thank you maybe to Tuba Da as a question just to finish in fact the young generation they were very moved by the play sometimes we had meetings with them after the play before and it was very interesting because they not in public but they stay with us and they were telling us how they were so surprised that we could say all these things on stage you know so we can really make the links between what's happening in that country and what we are seeing on the stage and they really appreciate that around Pamuk and we keep this soul in the spirit in our stage adaptation but he was defending each character so in a way like a reverse branch and alienation effect instead of playing something in China to tell them of it or something you have somewhere from Turkey but there's a lot of there are many many Muslims in China not only if we were in other places in fact that even this box of uprising that happened in 1940 in China Muslims were also involved in it and half of the Chinese government and army was also involved in it Muslims, Chinese and the Chinese spirit and it was one of the earliest anti-western and they were filling Christians in the streets it was one of the earliest anti-western uprisings and Muslims were also involved Muslims in China are not all that can sing on their own thank you but already it's an incredible task from that novel to condense it to a play tonight we had a selection even of the play you were already touring with the audience how did you approach this well the challenge really when you do that because novel like snow is so big you have to cut it and yet at the end what you are left with for the play must contain the soul the heart of the novel and to be frank we were at the beginning terrified that Oran wouldn't retrieve his novel in our play so so this was really the biggest challenge for us so we went through a process of selecting some scenes we put them together and we asked ourselves do we have here with this selection looks like a play which can tell a story draw an eye through the novel do we have the heart of the novel and once we thought that it was the case we of course wrote to Oran and we asked them for a meeting to start a discussion but yes we were terrified really the scene in our hotel is in or out the scene in our hotel you mean the big discussion a declaration so so this is a very interesting it's my fault but it will be good if you fight in front of the audience yes see if you can understand or play it's much more interesting a very good shot and I think we come closer to the last question what are you working on at the moment what's your business thank you for the location by the way thank you so much I'm writing of course another novel it's very similar to this in fact a historical novel that I've been thinking I always say that I've been thinking about this novel for the last 35 years all of my other novels are stolen from them which is cut off from the rest of the country but it's Ottoman Empire and it's not snow, it's plague this time and the imposition of quarantine is a horrible job or whatever but it is it is a novel about medical novel about imposition of quarantine in 19 or where that it is very important to think that people do this do that, close your shop don't go this, they don't want to do it and in the end you see how important it gets well we're curious to see in a minute but I will have some more coming in the years coming again thank you all for coming to New York it's amazing what they did on that