Youth in provincial Turkey, confronted by economic devastation and harbouring naïve hopes for a better future.
Zehra and Olgun spend most of their young lives working in a service station near a lonely highway. The once important industrial area is now a faceless place of economic waste and unemployment. Most of the area's occupants have all escaped to the big city in search of opportunity. But Zehra and Olgun still remain, the monotony of their day dispelled only by sparks of naïve expectations and plans for the future. Zehra dreams that love will take her away from her meaningless job and becomes fascinated by an older truck driver, Mahur. Thus, Zehra and Olgun both experience a bittersweet rite of passage, leading to awakening.
Yesim Ustaoglu
Born 1960 in Sarikamis, eastern Turkey. She worked as an architect and journalist before making several award-winning short films. She had her feature film debut with The Trace in 1994, and received international recognition for Journey to the Sun in 1999. Her fourth film, Pandora's Box, received Best Film award in San Sebastian in 2008.
»Araf – Somewhere in Between reflects the world of today, where people live in a kind of vacuum. It seems we have come to the end of a world we are familiar with and stand on the edge of the »unknown.« We are not sure how to enter it or of our feelings towards it. The system we live in is sending out alarm signals, yet we do not notice them.«
- Yesim Ustaoglu