{"id":506113,"date":"2026-06-18T13:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/506113\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T13:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:14:08","slug":"a-brighter-word-than-bright-follows-two-lives-shattered-by-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/506113\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A Brighter Word Than Bright’ Follows Two Lives Shattered by Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRising Turkish filmmaker Belkis Bayrak<\/a> is prepping her sophomore feature, \u201cA Brighter Word Than Bright,\u201d which she\u2019s presenting this week in the Transilvania Pitch Stop co-production forum of the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival. The director\u2019s\u00a0debut feature, \u201cG\u00fclizar,\u201d world premiered in Toronto\u2019s Discovery strand\u00a0and played San Sebastian\u2019s New Directors Competition.<\/p>\n

\n\tA portrait of grief and resilience, \u201cA Brighter Word Than Bright\u201d follows a young literature teacher who, in an effort to protect the dignity of a grieving woman, serves five years in prison for a death he didn\u2019t cause \u2014 only to find upon his release that the official truth has erased his sacrifice. Written by Bayrak, the film is produced by Saba Film (Turkey), Arizona Films (France) and Plan Bee Films (Kosovo).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film begins in a Turkish military barrack, where Osman, a sensitive young conscript, forms a quiet but powerful bond with his superior, Ziya. In the rigid and masculine world of the army, they find sanctuary in poetry and late-night talks \u2014 a safe haven that\u2019s abruptly shattered when Ziya takes his own life.<\/p>\n

\n\tAware of the taboo around suicide in Turkish society, Osman decides to take the blame for Ziya\u2019s death to spare his pregnant fianc\u00e9e the shame, isolation and harsh public censure she would otherwise face. To protect her and the future of her unborn child, Osman makes a silent and heavy sacrifice: he insists that he instigated the suicide and spends five years in prison. The film picks up the thread of their story after his release, when the duo reconnects, and Osman tentatively begins to rebuild his life through a love for literature and teaching.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to\u00a0Variety\u00a0in Transilvania, Bayrak described \u201cA Brighter Word Than Bright\u201d as a film \u201cabout two men whose presence \u2014 and absence \u2014 have marked my life.\u201d It draws on a tragic episode in the director\u2019s past, when her uncle, who served alongside her father in the Turkish Armed Forces, died by suicide \u2014 a tragedy that her family has never fully come to terms with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYears later, Bayrak said she was the first among them to openly talk about the tragic death, breaking the silence \u201cthat still reverberates through my family.\u201d She sees the film not only as a \u201cgesture of remembrance\u201d for her uncle, but an act of empathy towards the wife, children and other loved ones he left behind, insisting: \u201cFilmmaking is a way of resilience for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaking its title from a poem by John Keats, \u201cA Brighter Word Than Bright\u201d was partly\u00a0inspired by Jane Campion\u2019s \u201cBright Star,\u201d\u00a0a biographical romantic drama based on the last three years of the life of the 19th-century poet.\u00a0Bayrak recalls being touched by Campion\u2019s evocation of the famous romantic poet, a \u201cfragile\u201d soul in which she says she saw glimpses of her father, a man who \u2014 much like the lead character, Osman \u2014 \u201cmanaged to overcome life\u2019s challenges with a gentle and restrained nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn order to shape the world of the film, which is set in the 1990s, Bayrak delved into her family archive for inspiration, unearthing old photos and letters to recreate the mood of the time. She said she encountered many \u201cbeautiful moments\u201d on this \u201cnostalgic journey,\u201d but could \u201calways feel the loss\u201d of her uncle lingering outside the frame of each photo and beyond the margins of every page.<\/p>\n

\n\tBayrak describes her uncle as a man who struggled with his explosive temper, and it is in part the question of masculinity that she hopes to explore, offering \u201ca different representation of male characters\u201d on screen.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI believe that, today, the definition of \u2018male\u2019 and \u2018masculinity\u2019 is very problematic. That is a burden for everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cThe definition of what is masculinity is changing. It\u2019s more rigid. There is less place for perception, understanding, empathy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve seen countless films set in military or war environments that glorify heroism and masculinity. But I have always been drawn to those who stand quietly at the margins whose fragility is not weakness but endurance,\u201d she continued. \u201cOsman is such a character. His story is about the long emotional aftermath of sacrifice, the impossibility of returning to who you once were, and the hesitant rediscovery of tenderness through teaching and art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Transilvania Intl. Film Festival runs June 12 \u2013 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rising Turkish filmmaker Belkis Bayrak is prepping her sophomore feature, \u201cA Brighter Word Than Bright,\u201d which she\u2019s presenting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[216315,93,61,60,270,214284],"class_list":["post-506113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-belkis-bayrak","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-transilvania-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}